Robert Lewis Jr.

Robert Lewis Jr. was recently appointed vice president for program for The Boston Foundation. In this role, he will oversee grantmaking for the Foundation, working with President Paul S. Grogan and his senior management team to execute the Foundation’s discretionary grantmaking, which distributed more than $26 million to area nonprofits in 2006. The Foundation also distributes designated and donor advised funds, making the total amount of its grants about $70 million last year.

Lewis most recently served as executive director of the Boston Centers for Youth and Families, the City of Boston’s largest youth and human service agency. He is a former president and executive director of the National Conference for Community and Justice in Boston, which runs LeadBoston, one of the city’s premier executive leadership programs. Prior to that, Lewis was senior vice president of City Year’s national operation and executive director of City Year Boston.

He also has experience with the city’s grassroots community organizations as a former director of community initiatives for the Boston Housing Authority, a director of the Streetworkers Program for the Boston Community Centers and a youth program manager with Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción.

Grogan praised Lewis’ “reputation as a visionary and effective leader in Boston, earning universal respect for his deep knowledge of the city and his ability to inspire and engage everyone from school children to corporate leaders.”

Rev. Ray Hammond extolled Lewis’ commitment to Boston and to the youth of the city.

“Robert Lewis knows this city street by street and child by child,” said Hammond, pastor of Bethel A.M.E. Church and chair of the Foundation’s board. “And he is as comfortable in the region’s boardrooms as he is coaching a child how to slide into second base, or how to achieve a bigger, better life. This appointment will change the Boston Foundation — and the city — for the better.”

Lewis lives in the Roslindale section of Boston with his wife and two children. He will start in his new position this September.