Image: Cynthia pulling a suitcase through Union Station in Washington D.C. NOTE: This blog was posted March 2023, so prices may rise over time. Washington D.C. is THE place to be when it comes to advocacy on a national level. This is where our decision makers work and where professional lobbyists and volunteer advocates flock to learn together and inspire each other. Unfortunately, since lobbying is big business, D.C. is an expensive place to stay. I once went to an anti-poverty conference where the main conference hotel was about $600 per night! Yikes! One of the hardest things about ..read more

“Hi! I need your help…” A friend reached out to me last year asking me to take part in her client’s social media campaign to share acts of kindness of social media. An organization called Alight used the hashtag of #AlightChainReaction to inspire good works from individuals throughout the 2023 winter holiday season. Alight is a global humanitarian organization dedicated to providing support and resources for over 4 million people displaced by conflict, exclusion, and climate change. Image: Cindy with a stuffed Pikachu pokemon donated to Toys for Tots What started out as a favor turned ..read more

Image: A calendar grid with a giant question mark on it. Even among seasoned activists, I don't meet a lot of folks who schedule their own lobby meetings. Many advocacy groups rely on staff for that work, but really anyone can request a meeting! Setting up a lobby meeting is a harder advocacy action than some of the other things we do, but it’s not as impossible as most people assume. This blog will give you clear steps to submit your meeting request and some advice for getting your meeting scheduled. NOTE: I wrote this advice from the perspective of meeting with a U.S. representativ ..read more

Image: Cynthia sitting on the edge of a fountain Along with hot tips for burning belly fat, my social media algorithms insist on showing me reels of tiny girls with "10 Tips & Tricks to Take Amazing Instagram Photos." I know they’re offering to make me more attractive while boosting their own clicks, but I started to wonder: Could these influencers help my activism? Was what I perceived as shallow actually great marketing advice to help me spread the word about global health? Image: Cynthia in front of U.S. Capitol 2009 Photo by Richard Smiley For 15 years, I’ve been com ..read more

This year, I did not write a “Mother’s Day Gift Idea” blog. Because my friends and I at Moms Demand Action want this year don’t need more flowers. We NEED our kids & friends safe from weapons of war while they are just trying to live their lives. This advocacy fight for safety from gun violence has always been personal. From the moment my kids started practicing hiding in classrooms from armed intruders, it hit home. But 8 days ago, it finally happened. Someone I love became a victim of gun violence. A friend of mine was hit in a public shooting.  Like so many American gun victims, Vi ..read more

Image: Hand pulling at a string, unravelling the fringe on a cloth. Image Credit: Cynthia Levin As I learn more about systemic oppression and racism, I’m rocked again and again by how deep our problems go in America. Here are just four injustices that are top of mind for me: 1. Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than White women 2. Black men are 2.5 times more likely than white men to be killed by police during their lifetime 3. Black homeownership is declining more dramatically than for any other racial or ethnic group in the United St ..read more

Image: Cynthia smiling in front of the U.S. Capitol building Start the 2023 session with a positive attitude of partnership and cooperation!  Did you know we have 82 new lawmakers in U.S. Congress this year? According to the Washington Post, 12 of them have no government experience at all. With 75 new members in the House and seven new senators, we have no time to lose in bringing them up to speed on all the important issues they'll be voting on this term.  But how do we do this when they aren't quite ready to talk to us? I was lucky to get through the U.S. Capitol Switchboa ..read more

How do a Gen X mom and a Gen Z kid are spend their first election day far apart? We’ll show you… This is the first year my kiddo has lived away from home. Teen advocate Yara is now a freshman at Johns Hopkins University, which makes me proud. But I’m also proud they’re spending Election Day with the Sunrise Movement up at my old campus at the University of Wisconsin - Madison to mobilize students there. I’m still here in St. Louis where Yara graduated high school from last spring. We’re both doing our best to keep up the election momentum and do everything we can for our issues on Election Day ..read more

Image: Shot@Life volunteers in Uganda pose with fingers held close together indicating how close we are to ending polio  “We are THIS CLOSE to ending polio!” That was the tagline for polio eradication campaigns back in 2012. Celebrities like Bill Gates smiled from airport advertisements holding fingers close together, showing a little tiny gap representing how close the world was to eradicating this terrible childhood disease from the face of the Earth. When I travelled to Uganda with the UN Foundation for the Shot@Life campaign, I got to be in a “this close” picture, too! I won ..read more

Image: Cynthia wearing a mask Let’s talk about Imposter Syndrome. It’s come to my attention that some people don’t think I suffer from Imposter Syndrome. I want to correct this today and write a few words about how I deal with it, hoping this post might help others. Keep in mind, I’m not an expert or a therapist. I’m a mom, advocate, and author who has an active inner critic…one that worked overtime during my book writing process! Who Experiences Imposter Syndrome? Imposter syndrome is the insidious thought pattern which makes us doubt our skill, talents or accomplishments. It give ..read more