“The Honor of My Life”: Maggie Levenstein Reflects on a Decade Leading ICPSR
ANN ARBOR–ICPSR staff, Council members, and friends gathered in person and online on Aug. 11 to celebrate Maggie Levenstein’s 10 years as director, and to welcome Trent Alexander as interim director.
Speakers praised Levenstein as an ambitious, optimistic, and deeply supportive leader who accomplished goals others considered impossible, and who has persistently removed institutional barriers.
“Maggie does the impossible, like on a regular basis,” said Alexander. “She got the largest grant the NSF has ever given in the social sciences, and she rebuilt our infrastructure with the help of everybody in this group,” he said.
Amy Pienta, ICPSR’s associate director of faculty, recalled early predictions Levenstein would be an “unstoppable force for positive change” at ICPSR. Levenstein delivered, providing to be “an incredible leader of people,” supporting faculty and staff, and helping others dream bigger. “She’s given me and others great latitude to pursue some of the most impactful projects of our careers,” she said. Pienta shared memories about Levenstein’s mentorship and ability to lead by building connections instead of reinforcing differences.
ICPSR Council Chair Courtney Bell shared some reflections from Council, like “her broad and deep technical expertise, her ability to collaborate effectively with a huge range of people, and her nose for innovating around mission-centered work.” Reading another Council member’s words: “she’s led the organization in consciously adapting to AI, launching DataLumos, and rescuing … so many datasets that were being deleted.”
Bell compared Levenstein to the green sedan in a Richard Bach book. In the book, for a pilot struggling to land, a green sedan becomes a steady guide that helps the pilot safely reach the airport. “We owe a great deal to green sedans. They tell us how we’re doing, where we are going, when we have no other way of knowing, and this is the important part that Bach writes … the driver of the sedan doesn’t know that he’s a rescue party for me. He’s only driving his car to wherever he is going. We can only pay our debts to green sedans by being green sedans ourselves, for someone we will never see. We can only go on our way as best we can, hoping that we might be helping people who are following us, who may be worried about how they’re doing. So, Maggie, the greenest of green sedans, thank you for leading us. And now is the time for the rest of us to pick up where you are leaving off. You have, as others have said,” prepared us well.
In her remarks, Levenstein credited ICPSR’s success to the faculty and staff who sustain its mission each day. “ICPSR is all of you,” she said, emphasizing the community’s commitment to preserving data, expanding access and caring for one another through times of change. She praised her ICPSR and ISR colleagues for collaborating, listening and learning from one another, adding, “Leading this organization has been the honor of my life.” Levenstein closed by thanking the ICPSR community “for the privilege of working with you.”
Levenstein expressed confidence that ICPSR will continue innovation, securing new resources, adopting new technologies, and fulfilling its data stewardship missions for years to come. The celebration concluded with cake, gifts, flowers, a photo book, written memories, and a “Catalog” plushie, companion to her ICPSR plushie of ICPSR mascot Data Jeff.
Related