Displaced by redistricting, Willard-Lewis ran in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 22, 2011, for the District 3 seat in the state Senate.
In 2006, Willard-Lewis, together with then Mayor Ray Nagin supported the opponents of a landfill project led by then-future U.S. Representative Republican Joseph Cao of Louisiana's 2nd congressional district.
[2] In 2009, Willard-Lewis was back in the news for telling fellow Councilwoman Stacy Head to "sit down with your prop" when Head was displaying a poster critical of the Orleans Parish garbage-collection fees—a discussion which preceded the New Orleans e-mail controversy.
[3] In 2007, when Oliver Thomas was eliminated from an at-large seat on the New Orleans City Council because of conviction for bribery, Willard-Lewis attempted to win the at-large seat but was defeated by then-former Councilwoman Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson in a special election which received national attention because the result changed the racial majority of the council.
She graduated from historically black Xavier University of Louisiana, where she was a member of Zeta Phi Beta sorority.