Steve Leveen

Steve Leveen is a champion of bilingualism in America.[1] He is the founder of the America the Bilingual project and the host of the America the Bilingual podcast, which he produces in cooperation with the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and its Lead with Languages campaign. Leveen created “America the Bilingual” as a storytelling podcast for Americans who are learning, or considering learning, another language.

Leveen was named a Fellow of the Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) of Harvard University in 2015 and a Fellow of the Distinguished Career Institute (DCI) at Stanford University in 2016.

Leveen is the former chairman and CEO of Levenger, which he started with his wife, Lori Granger Leveen, in 1987. He created the company with a mission of providing high-quality products for reading, writing and working with ideas—all three of which he subsumed under the concept of pursuing a well-read life. The company's specialty publishing arm, Levenger Press,[2] produced hardcover facsimiles of historical manuscripts from the Library of Congress, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Morgan Library & Museum, The New York Public Library, and other cultural institutions.

Leveen's first book, The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life, was published in 2005. Among the publications that featured it were The New York Times Book Review, the Christian Science Monitor, the Boston Globe and the Miami Herald. The book was named a BookSense pick by the independent bookstores of America, and its author was part of a panel presentation at the 2005 Miami Book Fair International. It was also the basis for a series of workshops Leveen conducted for companies such as Starbucks and Target, and that focused on finding more time to read the books that mattered.

Leveen's second book, Holding Dear: The Value of the Real, was published in 2013 and includes original essays from guest contributors Patti Smith, David McCullough, Ann Patchett, Joseph Finder, David Allen, Kevin Kelly, and Paul Saffo, among others.

Over the years, Leveen has broadened the concept of a well-read life to encompass literacy causes as well as bilingualism. Bilingualism in America is the topic of a forthcoming book.

Leveen was a longtime board member of the National Book Foundation and, through the Levenger Foundation, supported the organization's Innovations in Reading[3] initiative. He was also a champion of its newest award category, for translated literature. He serves in an emeritus position for the board of the Conscious Capitalism organization. He is also an advisor to the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County, where he helped establish the charity bike ride, Loop for Literacy. Leveen is active in YPO,[4] an international leadership organization that focuses on lifelong learning for CEOs. He serves in various education roles domestically and internationally, in addition to being a member of the YPO resource bureau for CNBC.[5]

Leveen frequently writes on topics related to the well-read life on Medium, for the Huffington Post, and on his own Well-Read Life blog. His articles on the human side of technology have been published in The New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times. He holds a B.A. in Biology from the University of California, San Diego, and master's and doctoral degrees in sociology from Cornell University.

Leveen is the son of Ada Ellen Roelke and Leonard Leveen.