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North Carolina Central University’s Chancellor Johnson O. Akinleye, Ph.D., announced in a statement the death of the university’s School of Law Dean Browne C. Lewis.
According to the announcement, Lewis was attending a conference in Colorado with colleagues at the time of her passing Thursday. She was found in her hotel room.
Dean Lewis joined the school on July 1, 2020, and will, unfortunately, miss her two-year anniversary with the university. Chancellor Akinleye described Lewis as “an accomplished legal scholar, attorney, and author.”
“Her vision was clear from Day One in leading the school as one that provides unique opportunities for diverse, talented future attorneys to be practice-ready practitioners in their chosen legal careers,” the statement read.
The school’s chancellor included that Lewis’ remarkable leadership led the School of Law to receive “a number of gifts from corporations and foundations,” which included a %million contribution from Intel Corporation that created the first NCCU-Intel Tech Law and Policy Center at an HBCU. Furthermore, it was because of her that prestigious law internships and fellowships were awarded to students.
In an interview with ABC 11, Dean Malik Edwards, who was devastated about the news of Lewis’ passing, discussed Lewis’ impact on the community, specifically the Black community considering there aren’t many opportunities for Blacks in the law field.
“I think there’s definitely a hole,” Edwards said. “But the good thing is, she had a vision, and she put that vision into place. And luckily, we have structures that allow those pieces to move forward.”
“She wanted to be dean here because she wanted to be at an HBCU,” he added. “Unfortunately, there are (few) opportunities for first-generation students and for minority students to become lawyers…African Americans represent less than 5% of the bar, and that’s something she wanted to change.”
Details surrounding her death and subsequent funeral service will be disclosed as they become available.