Kumari Lewis has been an assistant coach with the University of Pennsylvania women’s rowing program since August 2017.
During her time on staff, Penn has made significant strides that includes the program's first four full-team appearances at the NCAA Championship from 2022-25. (Prior to 2022, the Quakers had qualified a Four in 1998). After tying for 11th with SMU in 2022, Penn jumped to sixth in the overall team standings at the 2023 NCAAs as the Varsity Eight finished fourth, the Second Varsity Eight was ninth, and the Varsity Four moved up one spot in its standing from the previous year (16th). The Quakers followed that up with a tenth-place finish in 2024 as history was made again with all three boats earning top-12 finishes (1V8 10th, 2V8 10th, V4A 11th). Penn was 17th at the 2025 Championship.
In addition, Penn's NCAA boats have won five medals at the Ivy League Championship during Lewis' time on staff: three from the Varsity Eight and two from the 2V8.
Following the 2023 spring season, Lewis along with head coach Wesley Ng and fellow assistant Helen Samaniego were named the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) Region I Staff of the Year. That staff was still in place a month later, when the Quakers made their debuts at both the Henley Women's Regatta and the Henley Royal Regatta over in the United Kingdom. Of particular note, Penn's Varsity Eight advanced all the way to the Island Challenge Cup final at the Royal Regatta, falling just short of beating British University champion Oxford Brookes for the title.
Lewis also has experience coaching with USRowing, coaching for the US Junior National High Performance Camp in 2019 and the Junior National Olympic Development Camp in 2021. She also spent the summers of 2017 and 2018 as a resident assistant with the USRowing Junior National Selection Camp in New London, Conn.
Lewis came to Penn from nearby Harriton High School, where she served as that program’s varsity girls’ coach for the 2016-17 year as well as the 2017 fall season.
Lewis rowed collegiately at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa., after picking up the sport at the Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J. A first-team All-Patriot League rower, she graduated from Bucknell with a degree in political science and minors in art history and French. Following graduation, Lewis rowed for the Vespers U23 program on Boathouse Row.
Lewis studied abroad in Namibia, South Africa and France as a Bucknell undergrad, and was a Dean’s List student who was a member of the Pi Sigma Alpha Political Science Honors Society and the Alpha Lambda Delta Academic Fraternity. She was a Patriot League Academic Honor Roll and a College Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) National Scholar Athlete recipient.
