Lewis graduated with a B.S. degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with high honors in ceramic engineering in 1986 and earned a Sc.D. in ceramic science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1991 under the direction of Michael J. Cima. The title of her dissertation is Binder Distribution Processes in Ceramic Green Tapes During Thermolysis.[1] From 1990 to 1997 she was an assistant professor at the University of Illinois, and was also affiliated as a research professor with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.[2][3]