Kimberly Lewis joined NHeLP in January 2011 as the Managing Attorney of the Los Angeles office.  She joins NHeLP from the Western Center on Law & Poverty, where she was a senior health attorney.  Kim worked on a variety of issues concerning eligibility for health coverage and access to services of low-income persons in California.  She has served as co-counsel on a number of cases concerning Medi-Cal recipients access to coverage and health services.  Over the past eight years she has worked as co-counsel on Katie A. v. Bonta, a case to obtain intensive home-based mental health services for children in California who are in foster care or at risk of being removed from their homes.  In 2006, she received the California Lawyer of the Year award in Public Policy for her work on that case.  She is a graduate of the University of San Diego School of Law.  Prior to joining the Western Center, Kim was a government benefits attorney at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, where she provided direct representation to low-income Los Angeles residents in health, welfare and social security cases.  Kim was an Adjunct Professor at the USD School of Law and the Directing Attorney of the law school's Patient Advocacy Program.  During her tenure at the law school, she established the Mental Health Clinic in 1993 and served as Supervising Attorney of that clinic until her departure in September 2000.  She also established a Special Education Advocacy Project to provide representation, education and training for families with children who are emotionally disturbed.  She has more than 20 years of experience as a health care attorney, 10 of which she served as an advocate in the mental health system.

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