Jennifer Lewis
Job Title: Director, Center for Community Design and Preservation
Contact
Email: jmlewis@uga.eduPhone: (706) 542-6760
Street address: 285 S. Jackson St.
Athens GA 30602

Personal Interests
Academic service-learning, community engagement, design charrettes, downtown revitalization, historic preservation, historic preservation commissions, historic schools as schools, neighborhood revitalization, urban designORGANIZATIONS
- Historic Athens (formerly Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation)
- Citizens for Healthy Neighborhoods
- CAPPA – Community Approach to Planning Prince Avenue Steering Committee
Honors and Awards
- PSO Facilitation Academy (2019-20)
- Vivian H. Fisher PSO Leadership Academy (2017-18)
- Service-Learning Fellow, Office of Service Learning, The University of Georgia (2011-12)
- President of the Board of Trustees, Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation (2010-11)
- Trustee of the Year, Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation (2009)
- “40 Under 40”, Athens Banner-Herald (2009)
- Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation Preservation Award for Outstanding Achievement, to Community Approach to Planning Prince Avenue Steering Committee (2004)
- Sigma Pi Kappa Preservation Honor Society, The University of Georgia (1997)

Jennifer Lewis
Biographical Information
Jennifer Lewis is the Director of the Center for Community Design and Preservation – the Public Service and Outreach arm of the College of Environment and Design. She develops and promotes community engagement, service-learning, and collaborative partnerships for the benefit of students, faculty, staff, citizens, and UGA public service and outreach units. She also manages the college's design charrette program – a service-learning opportunity for students that provides a collaborative visioning workshop for Georgia communities. Her expertise lies in service-learning and community engagement, as well as historic preservation commission activities and design review programs in historic districts, downtown revitalization programs, and community design charrettes – all tools that assist communities in protecting what is significant from their past and managing future growth.
Jennifer was a member of the 2019 Public Service and Outreach (PSO) Facilitation Academy, the 2018 Vivian H. Fisher PSO Leadership Academy, and a 2011 PSO Service-Learning Fellow. She has served on the Board of Trustees for Historic Athens for a total of ten years, including terms as its President and as Chair of the Preservation Awards and 50th Anniversary committees. Previously, Jennifer has served the state as Georgia’s Certified Local Government Coordinator and as Design Manager for the statewide Better Hometown Program.
Education
1995 Bachelor of Arts, Art History and Studio Art, College of Charleston2002 Master of Historic Preservation, The University of Georgia, Thesis: “We Become Like That Which We Constantly Admire: Justifying the Use of Historic School Buildings as Schools”
2012 Charrette System Certificate, National Charrette Institute
RECENT AND ONGOING PROJECTS (2020-2021)
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Hoschton charrette |
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Little River Trails charrette, McDuffie Co. |
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Interdisciplinary Research Team - Coastal Housing Resiliency Member of an interdisciplinary UGA team of engineers, ecologists, planners, social scientists and others to explore how lessons learned from initiatives such as the Katrina Cottage, in combination with innovations such as 3D printed construction techniques, could produce affordable homes that are better suited to withstand storm events yet fit in among traditional residences. The UGA Marine Institute on Sapelo Island will serve as a proving ground for this project. Article |
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West Broad School redevelopment |
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Cedar Shoals High School Peer Leaders |
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Springfield Log Cabin School |
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Brewpub Charrette, Hawkinsville GA |
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Interim Findit Coordinator |
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Experience UGA field trips |
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Gulf-South Summit on Service-Learning |
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Rural Health studio Partner with Professor Longenecker’s LAND 4030-S service-learning studio to provide community engagement and historic preservation expertise through a partnership with the College of Public Health and the UGA-CAES/FACS Cooperative Extension service on a High Obesity Program (HOP) initiative. Each semester since Fall 2019 includes a sequence of studios that will work with Taliaferro, Stewart, Dooly, Clay and Calhoun counties to understand the connection between healthy lifestyles and rural communities as it relates to how places are designed. Article |