Jody Lewen, founder and president of Mount Tamalpais College, has been named one of three recipients of the 2024 Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education. Presented by the McGraw Family Foundation and the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, the award recognizes Dr. Gordon’s lifetime achievements in higher education
Mount Tamalpais College is an accredited, tuition-free, degree-granting institution located within the San Quentin State Prison in California. Dr. Lewen began working with San Quentin in 1999 as a volunteer with the Prison University Project, which at the time, was the only on-site degree-granting program in a California prison. Throughout her time with the institution, she has served as a thought leader in the field of prison education, advocating for the values of high academic quality and inclusivity, as well as serving as a resource to policymakers, practitioners, academics, and the administrations at San Quentin State Prison and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Dr. Lewen’s most recent award is not the first time she has been recognized for her contributions to advancing prison education. She received the 2006 Peter E. Haas Public Service Award from the University of California, Berkeley and the 2015 James Irvin Foundation Leadership Award. In 2016, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal from President Obama.
Dr. Lewen is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where she majored in modern European history. She holds a master’s degree in comparative literature and philosophy from the Freie Universität in Berlin, Germany and a Ph.D. in rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley.