Stephen Lewis is President Emeritus and Professor of Economics at Carleton College and was President of the College from 1987 to 2002. During his presidency, Carleton substantially expanded its international programs, its international student body, the proportion of U.S. minority students and its applicant pool for admissions; diversified its faculty and staff (in gender, nationality and race); reformed its governance system; adopted new procedures for faculty personnel decisions; increased support for faculty development; improved the quality and quantity of student services; substantially increased alumni financial and volunteer support of the College; constructed major new facilities for academic programs and student life; and more than tripled its net worth.

While at Carleton, Lewis also served twice on the Board of the Consortium on Financing of Higher Education (COFHE) and served once as chair; he also chaired the Boards of the Associate Colleges of the Midwest and the Minnesota Private College Council. From 2000 to 2002, he wrote a series of memoranda to other presidents of liberal arts colleges suggesting fundamental reforms of the way Division III athletics is organized.

Lewis joined the faculty of Williams College in 1966. He was executive secretary to the committee that recommended Williams become coeducational, and served as Provost of the College from 1968 to 1971 and 1973 to 1977. From 1984 to 1986 he chaired the Economics Department and was the Herbert H. Lehman Professor of Economics from 1976 to 1987.

A specialist in the economics of developing countries, Lewis was Research Advisor to the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics in Karachi, Pakistan (1963-65), Economic Advisor to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning in Kenya (1971-73), and Economic Consultant to the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning in Botswana (1975-present), resident in Botswana 1977-78 and 1980-82.

Lewis earned a B.A. from Williams College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. In addition to teaching at Williams and Carleton, he has taught at Stanford, Harvard, the University of Nairobi, and the University of Sussex. He has received honorary degrees from Williams, Carleton, Macalester College, and Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. In 1982 he was decorated with the Presidential Order of Meritorious Service by the Government of Botswana. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, has been a Trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace since 1988, and Director of the Minnesota Humanities Commission since 2004. He is a Director of the RiverSource Mutual Funds, Valmont Industries, and several private companies.