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Meet the Leader
Nicole Lynn Lewis serves as the CEO of Generation Hope, an organization she founded to build what she did not have as a young parent in college.
To ensure all student parents have the opportunities to succeed and experience economic mobility, Generation Hope engages education and policy partners to drive systemic change and provides direct support to teen parents in college as well as their children through holistic, two-generation programming. Generation Hope has gained national attention for its whole-family approach to dismantling poverty, and its expansion beyond its current Washington, DC-area footprint.
Nicole's honors and recognitions include the inaugural Black Voices for Black Justice Award, which "recognizes incredible leaders who have been on the frontlines working to dismantle the deep-rooted, racist systems that have plagued our country for centuries." In 2021, her highly-anticipated memoir, "Pregnant Girl," was released by Beacon Press and was named one of the best books of 2021 by NPR. Nicole has a bachelor's degree from the College of William & Mary and a master's degree from George Mason University.
Nicole and her husband, Donté Lewis, live in Maryland with their five children.
About the Organization
We know that educational attainment can change lives. Founded in 2010, Generation Hope works directly with young parents earning their college degrees and with their young children to prepare them for kindergarten, advocates nationally for the unique needs of student parents and their families, and partners with colleges and universities to provide technical assistance in order to advance student parent success in higher education.
Meet All the Awardees
Each leader is transforming education across the United States. They're building new learning models, developing talent pipelines for the classroom and beyond, and creating pathways to economic power for Black students and communities.
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