Lilian Lewis

Lilian Burwell Lewis was an American zoologist known for being the first African-American woman to receive a doctorate degree from the University of Chicago and for her research in gonadogenesis. On November 8, 1960 she was elected to Winston-Salem Forsyth County School Board where was an advocate of equity and desegregation. She campaigned for equal treatment of children during a time of de facto segregation.

Early life and education Lewis was born Lilian Leonora Burwell in Meridian, Mississippi on August 13, 1904, as the ninth of thirteen children. In 1919 She earned a high school diploma from Tougaloo College before attending Howard University. In 1925 she studied under Ernest Everett Just and graduated with a bachelor's degree in biology. Lewis would then follow in the footsteps of another one of Just's students, Roger Arliner Young to study with Frank Rattray Lillie at the University of Chicago. – she completed a doctoral degree in endocrinology in 1946. From 1931 to 1947, Lewis taught at Tillotson College to finance her doctoral studies, despite earning two Rosenwald Fellowships from the University of Chicago. After earning her doctorate, Lewis spent the remainder of her career as a full professor and Chairperson of the Natural Sciences Department at Winston-Salem Teacher's College. She retired in 1970.

Lewis married Winston-Salem native John Frank Lewis in 1934. Mr. Lewis was an Education and Psychology professor and Chair of the Winston-Salem College's Education and Psychology Department.

Her 1925 Howard University yearbook quote was: "A winner never quits and a quitter never wins."