Sarah Levin is the Senior Legislative Representative at the Secular Coalition for America. Prior to joining the Secular Coalition in October 2013, Sarah completed her AmeriCorps service as a community liaison for the Parent Connection program at the Greenbrier Learning Center in Arlington, Virginia. As part of her service, Sarah worked with local nonprofits and businesses to provide free, bilingual educational programs tailored to low-income, immigrant and refugee families.
Sarah applied and further developed her experience in grassroots organizing at the Secular Coalition, where she has managed and grown the organization’s state chapter program and implemented various grassroots campaigns on the national and state level.
In 2014, Sarah spearheaded the “Knit a Brick” campaign to protest the Hobby Lobby v. Burwell decision. A tongue-in-cheek campaign driven by social media, Knit a Brick harnessed anger at the Supreme Court’s decision to privilege religious employers at the expense of employees’ religious freedom by calling on secularist “craftivists” to “knit a brick” to rebuild the wall of separation between church and state. Knit a brick captured national headlines and the response surpassed expectations. In just five weeks, more than 1,600 hand knit bricks, from activists in every U.S. state and around the world, were mailed to the Secular Coalition’s office. The campaign concluded with a march from the Supreme Court to the U.S. Capitol, where supporters demanded action from Congress and displayed not one, but three knitted “walls of separation.”
In 2015, Sarah implemented Bad Bill Madness, a March Madness spinoff and educational social media campaign that pits 16 state bills into a tournament bracket and asks supporters to vote on which bills most violate the separation of church and state, calling attention to the egregious violations at the state level and calling for action to fight the “winner.”
In 2016, Sarah worked with local activists to host the first ever Secular Caucus at a state political convention, where three policy resolutions were incorporated into the Texas Democratic party’s platform. She built on this momentum by arranging a reception for secular Democrats at the National Democratic Convention and working with Utah delegates to secure the Utah Democratic Party’s approval of an official Secular Caucus.
Sarah graduated cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies from American University, where she also served as president of the university’s Secular Student Alliance affiliate.
In her spare time, Sarah enjoys learning new languages, planning her next trip abroad, and putting Frank’s Red Hot sauce on everything.
Sarah is a supporting member of Compassion & Choices, Washington Area Secular Humanists, the Women’s Information Network, and the Secular Coalition for America. She also supports the Ex-Muslims of North America, Capital Area Food Bank, National Juvenile Defense Center, and Planned Parenthood.