Katherine Reynolds Lewis

Katherine Reynolds Lewis (2017) is an award-winning independent journalist based in the Washington D.C. area who covers child welfare, social justice and mental health. She is completing a book for PublicAffairs that exposes how the prevailing methods for disciplining children undermine their self-regulation. Her book tells the stories of innovative educators and psychologists who are rebuilding kids’ self-control, diverting the school-to-prison pipeline and changing the trajectory of young lives.

The book grows out of her article for Mother Jones magazine about a non-punitive discipline model that eliminated the need for restraints in locked child psychiatric wards; cut recidivism and injuries in half in juvenile justice facilities; and in public schools, reduced discipline referrals and aggression by up to 80 percent. Within days of appearing on MotherJones.com, it became the site’s most-read story ever, with more than 4 million views to date.

Lewis’ work has appeared in TheAtlantic.com, Fortune, Mother Jones, The New York Times, Slate, USA Today’s magazines, and the Washington Post Magazine, among others. She holds a degree from Harvard College. Lewis’s book is scheduled to be published in PublicAffairs in Spring 2018.