Nancy Davis Lewis
Adjunct Senior Fellow Adjunct Senior Fellow
Nancy Davis Lewis Nancy Davis Lewis
Staff office/program
Globalization and the geography of health and disease; Climate change and health; Gender, health and development
Nancy D. Lewis stepped down as Director of the Research Program at the East-West Center August 1, 2017. Nancy was recruited to the East-West Center from the University of Hawaii at Manoa where she served as the Associate Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Professor of Geography with affiliate appointments in Public Health, Pacific Island Studies, Women's Studies and Urban and Regional Planning. Nancy has long been involved with the Pacific Science Association, a regional, interdisciplinary science organization, and she currently serves as immediate past PSA president. She has led the organization's efforts to promote women in science for over a decade. Nancy has also served on the gender advisory board of the International Federation of Institutes for Advanced Study and on the founding board of the International Association for Ecology and Health. She is a past president of the Hawaii chapter of Sigma Xi and serves or has served on the editorial boards of Pacific Science, EcoHealth, and Ethics, Place and Environment. She has also served on the US National Research Council Committee for the Pacific Science Association. Additional service includes serveing on the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars Geography Advisory Committee for Fulbright Scholars, the State of Hawaii Executive Office on Ageing Policy Board on Elderly Affairs, the State of Hawaii Working Group on Climate and Health and the Board of the Hawaii Chapter of the UC Berkeley alumni association.
Nancy's research has revolved around the intersection between health and the environment, exploring health and development, gender and 'safe womanhood', health risks associated with climate change and globalization, health and human security. She has over thirty years of field experience in the Pacific Islands and more recent experience in East, South and Southeast Asia.
Nancy holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Geography, an interdisciplinary M.S. in Health and Medical Science, and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. She was a Kellogg National Leadership Fellow in the mid-1980's and was awarded an EWC annual teaching award for most outstanding instructor. She has received a number of grants, fellowships and awards, is the author of numerous professional publications, and has served as a consultant for national and international organizations.
Select Publications:
Lewis, Nancy Davis. 2012 Islands in a Sea of Change: Climate Change, Health and Human Security in Small Island States, Chapter 2 in National Security and Human Health Implications of Climate Change, H.J.S. Fernando, Z. Klaić and J.L. McCulley, eds. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series C: Environmental Security, Springer, Dordrecht, the Netherlands, pp. 13-24.
Ward, R. Gerard and Lewis, Nancy D. 2009 "The Pacific Science Association: more than eight decades of science in and of the Pacific", International Journal of Technology Management, 46:1/2: 83-96.
Ebi, Kristi L., Lewis, Nancy D. and Corvalan, Carlos, F. 2006. "Climate variability and change and their potential health effects in small island states: Information for adaptation planning in the health sector", Environmental Health Perspectives 114(12): 1957-1963.
Kaplan, Durrell, Bennett, Shannon, Ellis, Brett, Fox, Jefferson, Lewis Nancy, Spencer, James, Saksena, Sumeet and Wilcox, Bruce 2006. "Avian influenza (H5N1) and the evolutionary and social ecology of infectious disease emergence", EcoHealth 3(3): 187-194.
Ebi, Kristi, Lewis Nancy D., and Corvalan, Carols F. 2005. Climate Variability and Change and Their Health Effects in Small Island States: Information for Adaptation and Planning in the Health Sector Geneva: World Health Organization, 53 pp.
Corvalan, Carlos, Hales, Simon, McMichael, Anthony with Butler, Colin, Campbell-Lendrum, Diarmid, Confalonieri, Ulisses, Leitner, Kerstin, Lewis, Nancy, Patz, Johathan, Polson, Karen, Scheraga, Joel, Woodward, Alistair, Younes, Maged, 2005, Ecosystems and Human Well Being: Health Synthesis, A Report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Geneva: World Health Organization, 54 pages.
Wall, Diana and Rabbinge, Rudy with Gallopin, Gilberto, Khoday, Kishan, Lewis, Nancy, Lubchenco, Jane, Melillo, Jerry, Schmidt-Traub, Guido, Sombilla, Mercedita and Cimarrusti, Lina 2005 Chapter 19" Implications for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals", Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, Responses Assessment.
World Health Organization (2004) Synthesis Workshop on Climate Variability, Climate Change and Health in Small-Island States, World Health Organization, World Meteorological Organization, United Nations Environment Programme, Geneva: World Health Organization. By Nancy D. Lewis and Sidney Westley, 89 pages.
Lewis, Nancy Davis, (2003) Climate Variability, Climate Change and Health in Small-Island States, background paper prepared for Synthesis Workshop on Climate Variability and Climate change in Small Island States, Bandos, Maldives, 1-4 December, World Health Organization.
Dyck, Isabel, Lewis, Nancy Davis and McLafferty, Sara Eds. 2001 Geographies of Women's Health, Routledge international studies of women and place, London and New York: Routledge,287 pp.
Shea, E., Dolcemascolo, G., Anderson, C., Barnston, A., Guard, P., Hamnett, M., Kubota, S., Lewis, N., Loschnigg, J. and Meehl, G. 2001 Preparing for A Changing Climate: The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change: Pacific Islands. A Report of the Pacific Islands Regional Assessment Team for the U.S. Global Change Research Program, East-West Center, 102 pages.
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