He founded The Center for Public Integrity and several other nonprofit organizations and is currently the executive editor of the Investigative Reporting Workshop at the American University School of Communication in D.C.

[5] He worked weeknights in the sports department of the Wilmington News Journal newspapers, writing stories and a weekly column.

In June 1977, he received a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, in Washington, D.C.[5] Lewis is married to Pamela Gilbert, a consumer-protection lawyer and former executive director of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

[8] In October 1989, from his home in the Washington D.C. area, Lewis founded the Center for Public Integrity, whose mission was to pursue investigative reporting based on intensive, long-term projects involving teams of researchers and extensive documents.

Within a few months, the Center was incorporated as a tax-exempt nonprofit with Lewis on the board of directors along with journalists Alejandro Benes and Charles Piller.

[citation needed] From 1989 to 2004, under Lewis' tenure as executive director, the Center for Public Integrity published roughly 275 investigative reports and 14 books.