Meet Ken

Ken's passion for the economic well-being of our families, our communities, and our state comes from his humble beginnings.

His grandparents were sharecroppers in North and South Carolina. None graduated from high school. Ken’s parents were in the first generation of his family to attend college. And years later, when he was able to go to college, Ken put himself through school with financial aid and lots of summer jobs.

He worked as a dishwasher, a janitor, a bus driver, and a laborer cleaning tobacco dust from old cigarette factories in Winston-Salem. To this day, Ken recalls working a summer job cleaning tobacco dust from machinery. He vividly remembers the sting of tobacco dust in his eyes and throat -- and he can still hear one older worker’s words of advice: “Son, stay in school. You ain’t cut out for this work.”

Ken credits his parents with teaching him the values of hard work, education, personal sacrifice, and creating opportunity for others.

Despite their meager beginnings, his parents found educational opportunities through hard work and sacrifice. His mother became a schoolteacher. His father became a minister and college professor.

Ken’s parents demonstrated their commitment to community through their service. During the turbulent 1960’s, for example, his father served as president of an interfaith and interracial group of ministers, rabbis, and priests working to foster reconciliation and progress in North Carolina. He was also a founding board member of an anti-poverty program.

Through a combination of summer jobs, scholarships, work-study jobs, and student loans, Ken graduated from Duke University and Harvard Law School, while serving in leadership roles at both institutions.

In addition to his lifetime of work on job creation, community development, and entrepreneurship, Ken has volunteered for many years with groups seeking to improve women's health, expand access to health insurance, improve the lives of children, and strengthen education in North Carolina.

For years Ken has served in leadership positions with some of North Carolina's most innovative and important nonprofit organizations. They include:

The Center for Community Self-Help. Ken served for years on the Board of Directors of this nationally-recognized nonprofit organization. The Center works to improve the lives of North Carolinians by providing low-interest financing to small business, supporting employee-owned businesses, fighting predatory lending practices, and transforming neighborhoods through community development.

Action for Children. He served on the Board of Directors of this leading North Carolina nonprofit organization, which develops and promotes policies to improve the lives of children, including education, child care, and health care.

Planned Parenthood. Ken served on the organization's Board of Directors, working for the rights of women.

Children First. He also serves on the board of this Durham nonprofit organization, which provides high quality, cutting-edge, early childhood development and education in Durham.

NC Baptist Hospital. Ken serves on the board of trustees of this teaching hospital, one of the leading academic hospitals in the country.

The NC Governor’s Efficiency Commission. Ken served on the Commission, which sought to reduce budget deficits and improve the delivery of services by state government in North Carolina.

Ken and his wife of 20 years, Holly Ewell Lewis, live in Chapel Hill with their three children, Evan, Marshall, and Maya. Holly is a graduate of Duke and UNC's Kenan-Flagler Graduate School of Business and a former marketing executive at Sara Lee.

Holly and their older children tutor at-risk students at a local elementary school, and the entire family volunteers at a food ministry at their church, Asbury Temple United Methodist Church in Durham.