Rev. Dr. Michelle Estelle Lewis

Rev. Dr. Michelle Lewis is the Founder and Executive Director of the Peace Garden Project that has gardens in New York and North Carolina. The Peace Garden Project grows food, distributes food, and looks at the intersectionality between food justice and other justice issues. During the summer of 2020 they distributed approximately 50,000 pounds of fresh produce to families on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. She is also a pastor and has also pastored churches in North Carolina, New York, and Connecticut. Her gardens have been used to grow healthy community while growing healthy food, and dismantling racism. Michelle spent 15 years with the National Park Service and was a Law Enforcement Officer. She is passionate about ending racial profiling, police brutality, and the intersections between justice issues. Michelle loves helping people and communities reach their full potential through creativity that engages the spiritual and the natural worlds. She served as part of a delegation to Saudi Arabia to work on Muslim Christian relations, and worked at the U.N. as an advisor to the Federated States of Micronesia. She is an award winning filmmaker (she won the Communicator Award of Distinction for her work on the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse) and radio show host. Her podcast Unpacking Faith can be found on iTunes. Michelle is the first woman of color to hold joint Master’s degrees in Religion and the Environment from Yale. She holds a Doctorate from Candler School of Theology at Emory University.