Jodie Levin-Epstein '72, Doctor of Laws

Jodie Levin-Epstein '72 received an honorary Doctor of Laws at Grinnell College Commencement 2009.

Since she graduated from Grinnell in 1972, Jodie Levin-Epstein has carried with her a Grinnellian's dedication to social justice through all seasons, whether favorable or hostile to the difficult work of building an equitable world. Even as a new administration headed by a former community organizer takes the helm in Washington, D.C., economic hard times are making her work against poverty and for decent working conditions for the most vulnerable workers more vital than ever.

Ms. Levin-Epstein is deputy director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP). She has also served the center as a senior policy analyst, a job in which she published extensively on issues such as paid sick leave, labor standards, and workplace flexibility. Among her more recent titles for CLASP is "Getting Punched: The Job and Family Clock." Her 2006 report, "Targeting Poverty: Aim at a Bull's Eye," describes and identifies recent efforts around the nation to set targets for the elimination or reduction of poverty. In addition, Ms. Levin-Epstein is responsible for creating, managing, and hosting CLASP's widely acclaimed national audio confrences on low-income and poverty issues. Her earlier work with CLASP included initiating a network of stat contacts and establishing CLASP's reproductive health project.

Prior to joining CLASP, Ms. Levin-Epstein was the deputy director of Advocates for Yourth. She also served as an aide to Sen. Dick Clark and as a political appointee at the Department of Agriculture in the Caryter administration. She was selecte3d to be a member of several prestigious working groups, including a White House Task Force on Hunger and the National Academy of Sciences World Hunger Study Team.

Year in and year out, Ms. Levin-Epstein has dedicated herself to proideing policymakers and legislators at all levels with a view of the effects of their plans and policies on real people - adults and children alike. In grounding these public policy debates in lived reality, she has been a voice for the voiceless.

Yet amid all the demands of her work for the public good, she has found time to be an active volunteer for Grinnell College.

Grinnell College is privileged to recognize Jodie Levin-Epstein for the key role she has played in the re-emergence of poverty as a central issue in recent public discourse.