About Us: Staff
Tony Lewis, Executive Director
Tony has been executive director of the foundation for more than a decade. During that time, he helped push for innovative and high performing schools, introduced healthy food for students and worked to reform the state’s school finance system. Prior to the Donnell-Kay Foundation, he was Director of Capital Planning and Director of Development with the Colorado Outward Bound School, an experience he says shaped his approach to the world.
Tony sits on a number of boards and advisory boards, including the Governor-appointed Charter School Institute board, the University of Colorado at Denver's School of Public Affairs, Facing History and Ourselves, dZi Foundation, Get Smart Schools and Venture Prep.
He also has a passion for science and the environment; Tony has 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. He also earned his B.S. in forest management science from Colorado State University. And Tony holds a master's degree in international studies from the University of Denver.
A Colorado native, Tony lives south of Lyons, Colorado with his family, honeybees, and chickens. He’s a climber at heart and leads a couple foreign excursions a year, along with his personal ice, rock and mountain climbing trips.