Tené T. Lewis Elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science
By Sarah Timbie
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Council has chosen Tené T. Lewis, PhD, as an AAAS 2024 fellow, along with 470 other inductees across 24 disciplinary sections. Election as an AAAS fellow is a lifelong honor reserved only for exceptional scientists, engineers, and innovators who contribute to the advancement of science across disciplines in areas like research, teaching, and science communication.
Lewis is a professor at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health Department of Epidemiology whose research focuses on health psychology and psychosocial epidemiology surrounding cardiovascular health in women. She specializes in researching how psychological and social factors play a role in the disproportionately higher rates of cardiovascular disease in African American women than women in other racial or ethnic groups. Lewis was chosen as a fellow in the AAAS section on psychology along with 10 other members for her research in documenting empirical associations between stressors related to race and gender and tracking clinical markers of their health impact.
“It is truly an honor to be selected as an AAAS fellow, particularly because my research has never neatly fit into a single discipline,” says Lewis. “Although I am trained as a psychologist, my work lies at the interface of psychology, epidemiology, and cardiology. I spent years learning theories and approaches from disparate fields, both challenging and being challenged by the conventional frameworks of a singular discipline. Recognition as an AAAS fellow is affirmation that this time was well spent, and that science that pushes boundaries and ‘goes off script’ is genuinely worth the risk.”
Lewis has previously received honors from the American Psychosomatic Society and the Health Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association. Her work has been featured in such media outlets as The Washington Post, USA Today, Essence Magazine, JET magazine, and on National Public Radio.
