Tony Lewis is executive director of the Donnell-Kay Foundation, a private family foundation established to enhance and improve education in Colorado. Among other initiatives, the Foundation supports nonprofit organizations in early childhood and public education that encourage the development of children who are ready to succeed in school. It is this particular focus that led the Donnell-Kay Foundation to be one of the initial funders of Get Smart Schools.

Prior to joining the Donnell-Kay Foundation in 1999, Lewis was the director of development and director of capital planning at the Colorado Outward Bound School, where he has been a course director and instructor for more than 25 years. Previously, he served as a program specialist for the Environmental Protection Agency in San Francisco, where he was in charge of policy, planning and implementation of wetland regulations in the Central Valley and northern California. Lewis has also been a program director at Breckenridge’s Outdoor Education Center and an independent facilitator for Catalyst Corporation, Pacific Crest Outward Bound School, the EPA and the Aspen Institute. In addition, he has served as a squad leader and firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service’s Pike Inter-Regional Fire Crew.

Lewis is the current chair of the board of the dZi Foundation, which promotes the education, health, culture and welfare of Himalayan mountain communities. He is also an advisory board member of Facing History, a curriculum for exploring values and diversity in middle and high schools. A longtime mountaineering guide, Lewis has led major climbing expeditions in Asia, South America, Africa, Europe and North America, and many foreign trekking and climbing trips, both privately and for the Colorado Outward Bound School.

Lewis earned a bachelor’s degree in forest management science from Colorado State University. He received his master’s degree in international studies from the University of Denver.