State Senator Jason Lewis represents the 5th Middlesex District of Massachusetts, which includes the cities and towns of Malden, Melrose, Reading, Stoneham, Wakefield, and parts of Winchester. He has been a leader in shaping public policy on a range of issues important to his district, region, and state, including healthcare, education, and economic opportunity for all.
Lewis was elected to the State Senate in 2014 following five years serving in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He serves as the senate chair of the Joint Committee on Public Health, chair of the Special Senate Committee on Marijuana, and vice chair of the Senate Committee on Steering and Policy. He also co-founded and co-chairs the Legislature’s Prevention for Health Caucus.
Lewis has led efforts in the state legislature to contain healthcare costs and reduce rates of preventable chronic diseases by focusing on prevention and wellness. He has championed reforms to the state’s education financing system in order to ensure that all children have access to a high quality education. He has also been a strong advocate for increasing economic opportunity and fairness for poor and working families.
Lewis was born in South Africa and came to the United States with his family when he was 12 years old. His experience growing up in a segregated society—as South Africa was under the racist apartheid system at the time—grounded him with a deep sense of social and economic justice, and he has been outspoken on issues of racial, gender, and LGBTQ equality.
Lewis attended public schools and, with the help of merit scholarships, graduated from Harvard College with a degree in economics. He also earned an MBA degree from Harvard University.
Prior to entering public service, Lewis had a long track record of accomplishment in the private sector, having helped build two successful software companies. He began his career with McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm. He held a number of senior management roles with RSA Security, a Bedford-based software company that is now part of EMC, and later was the senior vice president of marketing at Endeca Technologies, a venture capital-backed software company in Cambridge that is now owned by Oracle.
Lewis and his wife, Susan, live in Winchester, where they are raising their two daughters, Sophie and Jessie, who attend the Winchester public schools. Susan Lewis is a middle school science teacher and also serves on the Board of the Winchester Multicultural Network.
Lewis is an elected member of Winchester Town Meeting. He previously served on the Winchester Finance Committee, the Winchester Master Plan Steering Committee, and the Board of Trustees of the Winchester Foundation for Educational Excellence.