Dean Lewis Wins the Bobbie Atkins Research Award

By Office of the President | Sep 17, 2024

Congratulations to Allen N. Lewis, Ph.D., CRC (Certified Rehabilitation Counselor) and Dean of the School of Health Professions (SOHP), on receiving the 2024 Bobbie Atkins Research Award from the National Association of Multicultural Rehabilitation Concerns (NAMRC), a division of the National Rehabilitation Association. The Bobbie Atkins Research Award honors the pioneering scholar who published groundbreaking work on the role of race and ethnicity in rehabilitation in 1988.

Dean Lewis accepted this prestigious award at the NAMRC Annual Conference in North Carolina recognizing his substantial contributions to research in multicultural rehabilitation and disability studies. The Awards Committee praised his outstanding research accomplishments and dedication to mentoring postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty at nearly a dozen minority-serving institutions nationwide.

Before joining Downstate in January 2016, Dean Lewis served on the faculties of Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Pittsburgh, Gallaudet University, and James Madison University. He was also a division director of a university-based survey and evaluation research laboratory while chairing two departments.

At Downstate, Dr. Lewis is collaborating with Harris Huberman, M.D., Division of Child Development Director in the Department of Pediatrics as the Co-PI on a five-year, $2.3M HRSA Brooklyn Leadership Education in Neurodisabilities (LEND) grant. This initiative focuses on training new providers to deliver evidence-based care for individuals with autism and other neurodevelopmental disabilities, strongly emphasizing advancing health equity.

Dean Lewis is firmly committed to enhancing research in SOHP, strongly encouraging students and faculty to conduct research across their disciplines; he also co-teaches the SOHP Research Methods course. He invites Downstate members to collaborate with him as co-authors, helping to develop their research skills. Dean Lewis refers to this collaborative approach as “feeding the family first,” prioritizing teamwork within the institution. His monthly research capacity-building meetings have significantly increased publications and grants among SOHP faculty, with participation from faculty across the campus. Another significant initiative led by Dean Lewis is the SOHP Annual Research Day, which celebrated its second event this past May.

Dean Lewis is leading a study evaluating the integration of cultural topics into SOHP courses. After establishing a baseline, he plans to implement an intervention he developed and published in 2009, focusing on incorporating cultural content into any course. He will share the intervention with all SOHP faculty and conduct a follow-up assessment to measure its effectiveness.

Dean Lewis has an impressive body of work, with over 85 refereed journal articles, book chapters, abstracts, encyclopedias, and more than 150 invited presentations at professional conferences. He has been a principal investigator, co-principal investigator, or program evaluator for federally funded research totaling over $18M, his research primarily centering on disability disparities and how culture influences the experience of being disabled.

A former Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling editor, Dean Lewis is also the author of the 2018 book, We Are All Racists: The Truth about Cultural Bias. This data-driven, solution-oriented book explores race as a form of cultural bias.