Not Your Grandfather's Rotary: President Works To Change Club's Image, Increase Diversity

Arlington TX

04 November, 2021

7:04 PM

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By Kristen Barton, Fort Worth Report November 4, 2021 When Courtney Lewis was finishing college at Southern Methodist University, she was a single mom with two kids and two jobs. She decided her goal of medical school no longer made sense, switching her path from becoming a bilingual doctor to finance. That change led her to the leadership role she has in Fort Worth today. Lewis, 44, is the North Texas Middle Market Lending team leader for BancorpSouth bank. She also is the president of the Fort Worth Downtown Rotary Club. To get to SMU, Lewis said, she had some luck. "I think we have to all acknowledge we had some lucky breaks in our life," Lewis said. "I went to an all-white elementary school and got a really good early education. And, so, when I transferred into the Dallas Independent School District in high school, I was pretty far ahead of a lot of the inner-city kids, and if my parents hadn't split up, I would have been in an inner-city school. My dad lives in Southeast Oak Cliff; and when my parents split, we moved in with my grandfather in the middle of the country, and we got bused into the city of Lancaster." To read the full article, click here. Fort Worth Report is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism about city and county government, schools, healthcare, business, and arts and culture in Tarrant County. Always free to read; subscribe to newsletters, read coverage or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.