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First Partner
Wade Bruton
Lisa Lewis Dubois’ influence on UNC Charlotte and the broader community, according to Philip L. Dubois, made him “a better chancellor.”
University, community benefited from Lisa Lewis Dubois’ counsel
BY JONNELLE DAVIS
Lisa Lewis Dubois was 6 or 7 years old when her parents signed her up for tap and ballet lessons. For weeks and weeks she practiced in her tutu, “tap dancing my little heart out.”
And then came the recital. “I thought I was great!” Dubois recalled recently. Her father thought differently.
“Afterward, my dad came up to me and he said, ‘Honey, we’re going to concentrate on math.’ I never saw a tutu again!”
She wasn’t much of a dancer, but she didn’t have to be. One of the many things Dubois’ father taught her was that she could be whatever she wanted. So she chose to become a lawyer like him.
“He treated me as a complete equal and with respect,” she said. “I didn’t understand the difference between boys and girls in terms of being able to succeed.”
Because of this lesson, Dubois enjoyed a long career as a criminal appellate attorney with the California Attorney General’s Office, as legal counsel to the speaker of the California State Assembly and later, a law instructor at the University of Wyoming.
Of course, that was before she became UNC Charlotte’s first lady. But the experiences have been similar, Dubois observed.
“In both cases you have to plan well in advance, you have to interact with people, you have to do your homework,” said Dubois, who earned undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she met UNC
Charlotte Chancellor Philip L. Dubois, when they were students. “It’s a little bit different when you’re an attorney. You’re researching for a case, and writing an appellate brief and arguing before a court. But, as first lady, I’m interacting with students and with donors and families and faculty and staff, and you need to do your homework ahead of time for that as well.”
Strengthening women
Equality was big in the Lewis household. Dubois’ mother was a stay-at-home mom, also an “incredible” interior designer, entertainer and cook who made sure Dubois, as well as her brothers, learned to cook.
Having been raised as a strong woman, Dubois has tried during her life and career to uplift other women and level the playing field for them.
“We all have felt in our lives the need for greater equity and parity in pay, in coming to the table in the corporate world, in the business world,” Dubois said. “Women have to be our own best friends, and they are my best friends. And if we can help all women achieve greater parity and become president of the United States some day I think we’d be a heck of a lot better off.”
Dubois brought that attitude, along with her skills as a litigator, to UNC Charlotte where, not even a full year into her job as first lady in 2006, she helped found and chair the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Women’s Summit. Dubois organized task forces to analyze data in five critial areas: health, poverty, violence against women, work and politics. Each task force identified indicators to assess the status and trends affecting women in each area, defined measures for each indicator and determined whether data were available.
One of the problems Dubois said the summit uncovered was the pay disparity between women and men. She said data revealed that women typically fail to negotiate their first salaries, while men do, leading to about a million dollar loss in pay over women’s working lifetimes.
The inaugural Women’s Summit was held two years later to present the findings to more than 600 business and community leaders. A year later, the summit launched the Women’s Summit Economic Impact Series, featuring symposia, workshops and public forums to address the
Kat Lawrence At holiday time, Dubois invited Charlotte’s female leaders to contribute to Kids First of the Carolinas, as part of her annual Christmas luncheon at Bissell House.
effect of the then-current economic environment for women.
Dubois’ goal was to have the summit’s work become a part of the University. Today it is known as the Women+Girls Research Alliance, a partner of UNC Charlotte’s Urban Institute. This partnership offers new opportunities for funding research and educational activities.
“I’ve always been passionate about women’s and children’s issues,” Dubois said. “And when we got here there was a small group of women who were extremely interested in the CharlotteMecklenburg area with respect to the lack of research done on issues surrounding women and girls. And because of my background in legal training, I understood that we needed data and evidence. You have to base your requests for change on research and evidence. And so that was kind of the perfect segue to come to the University, come to me to see if we could get that done, and we did.”
Betty Chafin Rash, co-founder of the CharlotteMecklenburg Women’s Summit, said of Dubois, “I can truly say that whatever the situation, she continuously emerges as a leader because she’s always prepared, emphasizes collaboration and brings out the best in people.”
–LISA DUBOIS
Family first
Dubois was a 20-year-old undergraduate when she met the 22-year-old Philip L. Dubois, a
Dubois’ many campus and civic accomplishments were recognized by UNC Charlotte with the naming of the Philip L. and Lisa Lewis Dubois Center at UNC Charlotte Center City.
Wade Bruton
political science graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in 1972. He was the “dreamiest Californian” she’d ever seen, complete with long blond hair and sideburns.
“He asked me to marry him after three months,” she said. “It was crazy. We didn’t get married for another five years. It was kind of love at first sight.”
But it wasn’t until Dubois was offered the job as provost at UNC Charlotte in 1991 that Lisa Dubois knew her life was about to change. She had been “very actively” practicing law for 15 years. The couple had three children, the youngest just a year old, and she wanted to raise them herself, rather than hire a nanny. The move to North Carolina would require her to retake the bar exam. She realized that she just couldn’t do it all.
Dubois left the courtroom but did not give up law completely. When the couple left Charlotte in 1997 for Dubois to take the job as president of the University of Wyoming, she became an adjunct professor of a very familiar subject: criminal appellate law. She taught for seven years.
“It was fun to get back into the law,” she said.
This former prosecutor’s personality lends itself to many talents. Known as warm and friendly, graceful and kind, she easily found her place to shine at UNC Charlotte.
“She has been a dedicated and effective community leader and a role model and inspiration to UNC Charlotte students and young alumni and has been instrumental in UNC Charlotte’s extraordinary transformation into a research university with nearly 30,000 students,” said Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles in December 2019 when honoring Dubois with a citation for her leadership and service to the community.
Dubois served twice on the Arts & Science Council board and also chaired the Public Art Commission, where she led efforts to install public art across the community, including in Romare Bearden Park and Charlotte Douglas International Airport. She also served for six years on the board of directors of Communities in Schools, a program that helps support and empower students to remain in school.
For Dubois, meeting interesting people— faculty, staff, students, donors or speakers who visit campus—has made her job at the University easy. She said working in this setting has been rewarding.
“We are in just the perfect environment for interacting with fascinating people,” Dubois said. “How lucky is that?”
Interacting with others is one of the things Dubois does best. As first lady, she has made it her mission to help community members interact seamlessly with the campus, namely the families of students enrolled here.
Dubois said upon returning to the UNC Charlotte campus in 2005, she noticed there seemed to be a disconnect between parents and
the University. That was an adjustment with the couple having come from the University of Wyoming, a school founded in 1886 with deep connections between the campus and families with students attending the institution.
To bridge the connection between families and the UNC Charlotte campus, Dubois helped establish what is now known as the Office of Parent and Family Services and hosted the annual Family Day Brunch. She makes a point of greeting each and every family member who attends.
“Phil and I shake hands with every single one of them as they come in the door, and that’s, again, so rewarding,” she said. “You look in the faces of a proud parent of a senior, and they shake your hand and they say, ‘Thank you, my child has had a wonderful experience.’”
Partners Starting Over
Dubois attributes being able to do her job so well to having a partner who listens to her.
“We’ve always had a partnership,” she said of her husband. “He respects my opinion, and I respect his opinion.”
She’s constantly on alert for him, whether about maintenance issues she notices during their strolls on campus, or articles he misses because he’s too busy to read the newspaper.
Dubois said he’s a better chancellor because of his wife.
“Someone once told me you need someone close to you to tell you when you’ve stepped in it,” Dubois said. “And if I’ve stepped in it, she’ll let me know in a nice way, and that’s important that you avoid making the same mistake twice.”
Dubois will miss the people at UNC Charlotte and the vibrant academic and greater community. But she is excited to spend more time with the entire Dubois family, which includes sons Taylor and Logan, Logan’s wife Kimberleigh and grandsons Brooks and Leo; and daughter Ali and son-in-law Owais Merchant.
Jonnelle Davis is advancement communications coordinator for University Communications.
In this 2015 family photo, Chancellor Dubois and his wife, Lisa, are with their son Logan and his wife, Kimberleigh; their son, Taylor; and their daughter Ali.
Dubois Legacy Scholarship
As Chancellor Philip L. Dubois prepares to retire, his family, friends and supporters recognize the countless contributions he and First Lady Lisa Lewis Dubois made to UNC Charlotte.
The Dubois’ children, Logan, Taylor, and Ali, inspired by their parents’ leadership, have established an endowed scholarship to honor their legacy.
The Philip L. Dubois and Lisa Lewis Dubois Legacy Scholarship will be earmarked for a nontraditional student with demonstrated financial need, preferably a first-generation college student from North Carolina.
With knowledge that their dad credits much of his life’s direction to the opportunity to attend a state university as a first-generation college student—and, in general, the number of lives that are changed by similar experiences—this particular focus offers a fitting tribute to cap his tenure at UNC Charlotte.
“UNC Charlotte has become a part of our family,” Logan Dubois, Taylor Dubois and Ali Dubois Merchant said in a joint statement. “The three of us wanted to do something special for our parents to celebrate their time here and to always keep our family connected to Niner Nation; we decided the best way to do that would be to establish a scholarship in their name at UNC Charlotte.
“We are so proud of all they have accomplished here and hope this scholarship will continue the Dubois legacy.”
The first awards from The Philip L. Dubois and Lisa Lewis Dubois Legacy Scholarship will be distributed in 2021.
To support the scholarship, visit giving.uncc.edu.
