Her journalism experiences started in high school. She went to an experimental school in Evanston, Illinois.
She talks about an urban studies class she had. She traveled a lot for this class.
A lot of her peers went on to work in the arts and social justice.
She went to Northwestern University for a bit, and then went to Columbia University full-time.
Her first job was producing a conference for inter religious leaders in Chicago. It was a dialogue through the American Jewish Committee.
David Roth asked if she wanted to take over the Illinois Ethnic Coalition.
Diversity was being pushed before she got the position. Multiculturalism was encouraged in schools as well.
She mentions Ray Hanania and other journalists involved.
She talks about "demystifying what it meant to be a white ethnic."
The members of the coalition wrote dozens of op-eds in support of each other's issues. She talks more about the coalition's efforts.
Her job in a sense was to teach business people how to write op-eds and understand an ethnic person's point of view.
They had Polish dialogue groups.
She partnered with the Attorney General's office. They did the first statewide conference on hate crimes.
She talks about the Los Angeles Riots and the Korean community. They had stores that were looted.
In the 1990's they brought the Black and Korean communities together. They had a press conference to bring peace to the city. She says they averted a second riot.
They also did work with religious leaders in the west side. They spent time to trying to lessen tension and release understanding. Journalists were brought to that effort as well.
She was born in Chicago in 1959. She grew up in a Jewish white community.
Her mother was a housewife. She talks about the Chatham neighborhood.
She went to a Jewish service that no longer had members in the congregation.
They stopped at her mom's old house. "The fact that you can go in a neighborhood and people look at you because you're a different race says a lot about where we are."
She gives background information on her father. He owned a furniture store.
Her parents were classic liberals.
Her family had a housekeeper who was African American. Levin always wanted to know about her history.
In high school she had friends of all ethnic backgrounds.
She majored in English at Columbia University. She says the university was very diverse.
She met people from all "walks of life" in her writing classes. It was a real eye opener.
She was always talking to journalists to provide names, sources, and story ideas.
A lady suggested that she sell the coalition's efforts. They came up with a directory of ethnic organizations in Chicago. People started sending in money.
The coalition got money from the Polk Brothers Foundation.
Then, they asked community leaders and scholars of the most populous ethnic groups in Chicago to write chapters on their groups. They profiled 33 groups and made a book.
The book got front page stories in newspapers. The book sold 25,000 copies in 2-3 years.
They updated the demographics in the next book, like adding Muslim Americans.
She says things have changed in how you market information.
In the 2000 Census, the coalition was partners with the county in creating a county wide coalition to advocate for fair and accurate account.
In 1998, they put together a program in creating a coalition to make sure funds were available for communities. This was to create awareness that the census was important.
They pushed journalists to write about the importance of accountability for the census.
Levin says so much has changed. Communities of color are being heard at such a broader and deeper level. "We wanted people to learn how to tell their stories in a compelling way."
She says there's so much noise out there now and things get lost. Now everybody is competing for space.
Social media and radio are committed to a variety of voices. She says newspapers aren't anymore.
She compares conversations from back then to today. She doesn't feel so at home in her space anymore.
White ethnics are intermarried now. "The whiteness has pretty much blended now."
Some ethnic groups still have their own schools, like the Greeks and Koreans.
She talks about the race of intermarriage.
If she were to put out a handbook again it would have to be "younger." She would also have poetry, essays, and art.
The first handbook was possible because of a corporate sponsorship from AT&T.
She says corporate America has changed. Back then there was a lot of authenticity.
She talks about the 2016 presidential election. The media needed to spend more time on issues of poor, white people.
"I hope there's a new generation of people that will understand that and do something about it." She says she's no longer a foot soldier.