Caroline Alexander Lewis keynote speaker

Caroline Lewis is as independent consultant who is passionate about effective education. She designs initiatives that are transformative, scalable and replicable. Ms. Lewis aligns action plans with vision statements as she builds capacity, promotes innovation, scales impact, and inspires leadership in individuals and institutions.

Additionally, as Founder of The CLEO Institute, Lewis promotes climate literacy and support for urgency and scale in our individual and collective responses. She is currently CLEO’s Senior Advisor, working with a stellar team to advance climate action as the urgent imperative it is. Lewis, a science teacher and high school principal, joined the staff at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in 2002 where she created the Fairchild Challenge. This interdisciplinary environmental education program still annually engages tens of thousands of students in Miami and around the world.  As the 2016 founding Director of Cushman High School, Lewis provided a unique vision for a rigorous, creative, character-based and civic engagement-focused high school education.

Her service roles include or have included: the National Environmental Education Advisory Council; American Public Garden Association; American Horticultural Society; Miami-Dade Executive Board for Science Curriculum & Instruction; the White House Summits on Climate and Energy and Women & the Environment; the Conservation Fund’s Advisory Panel; Congressman Curbelo’s Climate Advisory Team, VAI-Changing The Current Advisory Council, Miami- County Living With Water Committee, and others.

Lewis has enjoyed many commendations.  More recently, in 2013, she was nationally recognized as a White House Climate Resilience Champion of Change. In 2015, she authored Just Back Off and LET US TEACH – a book for effective teachers and those who champion them. In 2017, she was a featured Speaker at the Miami March for Science and The People’s Climate March, Miami, That year, the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce also recognized her as a Global Change Maker.  In 2018, Lewis was named by Time Magazine as one of 31 individuals making a difference in the South. And, in 2019, Lewis was briefly featured in National Geographic’s Documentary: From Paris to Pittsburg.

Born and raised in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, Caroline Lewis now calls Miami (Florida) home.