FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, Feb. 8, 2008
Julie Levak, Director of External Affairs, California Council for the Humanities
(415) 391-1474
jlevak@calhum.org
SAN FRANCISCO — The California Council for the Humanities today announced that Ralph Lewin will become the organization’s new executive director, assuming the position on March 10, 2008. Lewin replaces current Executive Director James D. Quay, who will retire in March after 25 years of serving the Council in the lead executive position. Lewin currently serves as associate executive director of the Council, where he oversees Council-conducted programs and grantmaking.
“The board of the California Council for the Humanities is delighted that Ralph Lewin has accepted the executive director position,” said Council Chairman Douglas Greenberg. “He brings to the job an extraordinary degree of proven success in humanities programming, a deep commitment to California, and a strong forward vision for the Council and for California cultural programming in general.”
Over the past 15 years, Lewin has been at the helm of the Council’s programming efforts. He first joined the organization in 1992 and that year opened the Council’s San Diego office and directed the award-winning cultural program Searching for San Diego. Lewin oversees the Council’s multiyear California Stories initiative and directed the highly successful statewide California Stories: Reading The Grapes of Wrath campaign in 2002.
“I am deeply honored to have been appointed to the executive director position,” said Lewin. “I firmly believe that the humanities — the knowledge of history and ideas, critical thinking and the life of the mind — are fundamental to a strong democracy. In the time ahead our shared work in bringing the humanities to the public will be more vital than ever.”
Active in several California nonprofit organizations, Lewin has served as an advisor to Poets and Writers, co-chair for the Northern California Grantmakers Briefings Committee, and board member for the California Studies Association. Lewin has acted as a consultant to the California Civil Liberties Education Fund and the California Trust for Cultural and Historic Preservation. He is also a three-time recipient of the international Idea Prize from the Koerber Foundation of Germany for his work in developing cultural programs that foster understanding among people.
Lewin earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and another in Germanic literature and languages from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He also studied for a year at Georg-August University in Goettingen, Germany, and spent a semester at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He received a master’s degree from San Francisco State University in international relations and was a guest scholar at the Institute for International Relations in Potsdam, Germany. Following his studies, Lewin lectured for a semester at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina.
Lewin is a lifetime California resident. Born in San Francisco and raised in San Diego, he now lives in San Francisco with his wife, Caitlin Mohan, and sons Sam and Leo.
About the California Council for the Humanities
The California Council for the Humanities is an independent nonprofit organization and state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The mission of the Council is to foster understanding between people and encourage their engagement in community life through the public use of the humanities. The Council has supported and created programs that bring Californians together around their history and culture for more than 30 years. Since 2001 the Council has been engaged in a statewide initiative, California Stories, designed to tell the larger story of California. The Council’s new California Stories campaign, How I See It, is helping young people to share — in their own words and through a variety of media — what their lives are like, what they care about, and what it’s like to grow up in today’s California. For more information, visit the Council’s website at www.californiastories.org or contact the Council’s administrative office at (415) 391-1474.
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