About Kimberly J. Lewis

Vice President Kimberly J. Lewis is a 1998 graduate of the LSU Law Center. She attended LSU where she received her B.A. in Political Science in 1993 and a M.A. in Public Administration in 1995.

Before becoming Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration & Chief Administrative Officer at Louisiana State University, Ms. Lewis served as Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Revenue for six years. Under Lewis’ leadership, the Department collected more than $10 billion in state taxes during the 2021 fiscal year. Other responsibilities of the Department included collecting outstanding debts owed to state and local government through the office of debt recovery, and the regulation of charitable gaming as well as the sale of alcohol, tobacco and CBD through the Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control.

Before serving as Secretary of Revenue, Ms. Lewis was a partner in the Tax & Estates Practice Group at Jones Walker, LLP focusing primarily on state and local tax matters, economic development financing, incentives and government relations.

Before joining Jones Walker, Ms. Lewis served as Special Counsel for the Office of the Governor of the State of Louisiana, where she provided legal counsel to Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and served as Senior Policy Advisor on Revenue, Economic Development and Insurance Policy. She also worked for six years at the Louisiana Department of Revenue, serving as Assistant Secretary for the Office of Legal Affairs and Confidential Assistant to the Secretary. From 1998–2000, she served as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Justice Bernette J. Johnson of the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Vice President Lewis previously served as an ex-officio member of the Resilient Louisiana Commission, which was charged with helping chart the state’s path from COVID-19 to a stronger and healthier economy that is more resistant to future disruptions. She also served as President of the Federation of Tax Administrators Board of Trustees and the Louisiana Sales and Use Tax Commission for Remote Sellers. She was the 2016-2017 President of the Southeastern Association of Tax Administrators (SEATA), and is a highly sought-after speaker on matters involving income, franchise, sales/use, severance, ad valorem property, and other tax issues. Since 2016, she has been a member of the Sales Tax Streamlining and Modernization Commission, the Task Force on Ad Valorem Tax Structure, and the Transportation Infrastructure Funding Task Force. She co-chaired the Task Force on Structural Changes in Budget and Tax Policy and chaired the Louisiana Retail Food and Beverage E-Commerce Task Force.

Ms. Lewis was listed in The Best Lawyers in America© in 2015 in the area of Tax Law, and in the 2014 edition of Louisiana Super Lawyers in the area of Tax. She has chaired the Section of Taxation for the Louisiana State Bar Association. In 2015, she received the Distinguished Achievement award from LSU Law Center and the Diversity Journal recognized her as one of the “Women Worth Watching.” In 2016, The LSU E.J. Ourso

College of Business Public Administration Institute honored Ms. Lewis as the Distinguished MPA Alumnus.

Prior honors and awards: Leadership Greater Baton Rouge Class of 2003, Leadership Louisiana Class of 2003, Baton Rouge Business Report Forty Under 40 Honoree 2006, Louis A. Martinet Legal Society Trailblazer Award 2013, Baton Rouge Business Report Influential Women in Business Honoree 2014, Law360 Minority Powerbrokers Q&A Series 2015, and State Tax Notes Notable Person of 2017.