Ayana Lewis, Esq.
Ayana Lewis, Esq. oversees partner support for over 215 schools, representing $33+ million in externally funded programs and resources, as Executive Director of the School District of Philadelphia’s Office of Strategic Partnerships (OSP). OSP collaborates with schools, partner organizations and District offices to help foster trusting and purposeful partner relationships that contribute to school communities where students thrive. Since 2018, OSP has used student needs data to match over 700 programs to schools, established partner Communities of Practice in Mentoring, Volunteer Coordination, Cultural Institution Coordination and College and Career Readiness, and developed comprehensive tools and resources for partners and partnership coordinators.
In her over 10 years with OSP, Ayana helped spearhead postsecondary pipeline and mentorship initiatives such as the Temple Future Scholars Program, the annual Dare to Dream Career Week with the PA Attorney General’s Office, the Law & Justice Mentoring Program and the LEAD Black Male Mentoring Program (now School Safety Mentoring Program), and co-led efforts to streamline District policies to increase partner compliance and sustainability in schools. As OSP’s college and career readiness partnerships lead over the years, Ayana has worked to strengthen and expand post-secondary success partner efforts, and was recently presented with Let’s Get Ready’s Founder’s Legacy Award, and the “College Access Ambassador Award” by the New Covenant Church of Philadelphia.
Prior to joining the School District of Philadelphia, Ayana worked as a litigation attorney at Morgan, Lewis and Bockius LLP, where she represented abused and neglected children as a volunteer child advocate in her pro bono practice, and also at the Harlem Children’s Zone, where she developed retention programs as a Program Coordinator and Retention Specialist.
Ayana was selected to serve as Co-Chair of Penn Law’s Equity & Inclusion Alumni Advisory Board, and is an executive board member of the Penn Law Black Alumni Association. Ayana also serves as an advisory member of the Philadelphia College Prep Roundtable Advisory Council, the Community College of Philadelphia’s Institute for Community Engagement and Civic Leadership Advisory Council, and Penn State Admissions Advisory Board, and is a member of the Black Nonprofit Chief Executives of Philadelphia. In 2012, Ayana earned her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and a certificate in Cross-Sector Innovation from UPenn’s School of Social Policy & Practice. Ayana received her B.A. in Sociology from Spelman College in 2006. She and her husband Michael Lewis spend much of their free time hanging out with their spunky, fearless daughters, Zala and Zuri.