Reta Jo Lewis


Reta Jo Lewis (born 22 September 1953 in Statesboro, Georgia) is the Director of Congressional Affairs and a Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and an attorney, former diplomat, and former candidate for Mayor of the District of Columbia. She is currently a member of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations[1] and serves as a Steering Committee member on the Leadership Council for Women in National Security.[2]

Reta Jo Lewis
Personal details
Born (1953-09-22) September 22, 1953
Statesboro, Georgia, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Alma materUniversity of Georgia
American University
Emory University

Lewis joined the German Marshall Fund’s Transatlantic Leadership Initiative as a Senior Fellow in January 2015. She also became the Director of the GMF’s Congressional Affairs Program in April 2016.[3] In this role, Lewis engages with Congress on behalf of the GMF, and arranges briefings and testimony on Capitol Hill with GMF experts on Transatlantic issues.

Previously, Lewis was the Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of State. As part of Secretary Hillary Clinton's 21st Century Statecraft, Special Representative Lewis' office was responsible for serving the global needs of U.S. intergovernmental officials and the entities they represent. Lewis was tasked to build and enhance relationships between state and local officials in the U.S. and their foreign counterparts around the world.[4]

Career

Since she began at the GMF, Lewis has been very active in engaging Congress through its Transatlantic Congressional Staff Salon Series, briefings on Capitol Hill, study tours, testimony from GMF experts, and engagement with European parliamentarians. Lewis has also worked with TLI to establish the Transatlantic Subnational Diplomacy Initiative (TSDI) to foster diplomatic relations in state and local governments.[5] Additionally, she leads GMF’s signature Congress-Bundestag parliamentarian exchanges and the Technology Transatlantic Congressional Study Tour, which focuses on global digital and privacy issues.

Global Engagement

Previously, she served as the Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs. In this post, Lewis stimulated the formation of relations between the U.S. Department of State, domestic subnational leaders, and their international counterparts. As Special Representative, she was key in facilitating the historic agreements to enhance subnational government collaboration with BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries and with certain EU countries.[6] In her role, she led the international efforts of U.S. state and local governments' cooperation towards and strategy regarding climate change to RIO+20, COP-16, COP-17 and COP-18.[6]

Lewis has also served as a partner at an international law firm and as an attorney-advisor. In this position, she represented the City and County of Denver and Mayor Wellington Webb on international issues. She served as the city’s principal liaison to the U.S. government of Denver’s hosting of the 1997 G-8 Summit and Summit of African Leaders that preceded the G-8. While an associate at a prestigious law firm, she served as the national tour director for the Nelson Mandela eight city U.S.A tour, where she provided counsel and advice to ANC Leader Nelson Mandela and senior officials.

Domestic Engagement

Under Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly, Lewis worked serving as Chief of staff to the Department of Public Works. Additionally, Lewis served in the Clinton White House from 1993-1995. As Special Assistant to the President for Political Affairs, she was the senior domestic political advisor for the Summit of the Americas held in Miami, Florida. She was the principal staff coordinator for the White House Task Forces on the 1996 Atlanta Olympic, Paralympics Games and the 1994 FIFA World Cup of Soccer.

After working under the Clinton Administration, Lewis served as the Vice President and Counselor to the President at the United States Chamber of Commerce. In addition, she was appointed Director of the Chamber’s effort focused on small business and outreach to women and minority-owned businesses.[7] She was the first African American woman to be an Officer, at the world’s largest business organization, where she led efforts on policies and initiatives focused on women, minorities and small business owners, entrepreneurs and organizations.[8]

Lewis has a diverse history working with law firms in varying capacities. From 1996-1997, she worked of counsel to Arter & Hadden, where she specialized in working with governors, mayors, legislators, and county executives. From 1997-2000, Lewis was a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, LLP, where she was a member of the Government Affairs and Public Finance practice groups. She was managing director at Vanderbilt Consulting, LLC, a D.C. firm focused on government relations and business consulting, from 2005-2007. From 2007-2009, Lewis held a position of counsel at Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, LLP where she provided strategic corporate legal and consulting services to firm clients seeking to develop opportunities in emerging markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Lewis worked with multilateral organizations, firm entrepreneurs, and business owners on a wide array of industries that included investments in infrastructure, financial and energy projects.

Lewis has been engaged in domestic U.S. political campaigns. Lewis was a member of the National Finance Committee for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, a role she held again in the 2016 presidential election cycle. She was a pledged delegate for Hillary Clinton from the District of Columbia during the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. She is a past member of a DNC platform standing committee and currently is an elected D.C. Democratic State Committee At-Large Committeewoman.[9]

Prior to her position at the State Department in 2010, Lewis was the Director of Business Outreach for the Obama-Biden Transition Project, and forged relationships between the incoming administration, business leaders, and national business associations. She also served as Chair of the District of Columbia Commission for Women, where she launched the Commission’s economic and international committees. In addition, Lewis is a member of the International Women's Forum.

Awards and Recognition

Reta Jo Lewis was named in the Women's Foreign Policy Group's list of African-American Women Trailblazers in Foreign Policy for her contributions to global affairs.[8] In 2013, she was recognized for her work as Special Representative and granted the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award.[6]

Education

Lewis holds a B.A. from the University of Georgia, a M.S.A.J. from American University and a J.D. from Emory University School of Law. She is a member in good standing of the District of Columbia and Georgia bars.

Campaign for mayor

Lewis announced her candidacy for Mayor of the District of Columbia on July 2, 2013. She struggled to connect with voters and did not poll above the single digits.[10]

The Sunlight Foundation, a government transparency advocacy organization, noted that Lewis tweeted and later deleted a message that said "Reta Lewis may not be a strong candidate, but today I've learned that she's a great babysitter."[11]

Electoral history

2014
2014 Mayor of the District of Columbia, Democratic Party primary election[12]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Muriel E. Bowser 42,045 43
Democratic Vincent C. Gray 31,613 33
Democratic Tommy Wells 12,393 13
Democratic Jack Evans 4,877 5
Democratic Andy Shallal 3,196 3
Democratic Vincent Orange 1,946 2
Democratic Reta Lewis 490 1
Democratic Carlos Allen 120 0
  write-in 235 0

References
  1. "CFR Membership Roster". cfr.org. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  2. "LCWINS Steering Committee". lcwins.org. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  3. "German Marshall Fund of the United States". gmfus.org (Press release).
  4. Lewis, Reta (February 7, 2012). "Special Representative". Speech. Council on Foreign Relations.
  5. "Mission Critical: Leadership for the Security Sector, Program Book" (PDF). gmfus.org. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  6. "Reta Jo Lewis' GMF Profile". gmfus.org. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  7. "Press release". uschamber.com. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  8. "GMF Commentary: African American Women Trailblazers in Foreign Policy". gmfus.org. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  9. "Candidates for Temporary Delegate". dcdemocraticparty.org. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  10. Davis, Aaron (7 March 2014). "Connecting experience to vision for D.C. has been a problem for Reta Jo Lewis". The Washington Post. Washington DC. Retrieved 2 July 2016.
  11. Margolies, Nicko (28 March 2014). "The Week on Politwoops: a beautiful spring morning, brekkie in progress and a strong candidate". sunlightfoudnation.com. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  12. "Mayoral Primary Official Results". District of Columbia Board of Elections. April 1, 2014.


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