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Victoria Schlafer Levin (1934-2008) was a science research officer who contributed oveer 30 years of service to agencies in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health. She was a well known advocate for research on infancy and early childhood addressing the mental health needs of young children. MENTION SRCD AWARD IN HER HONOR.

Biography
Levin was born in Detroit on June 8, 1934. She earned an undergraduate degree in history from Wellesley College in 1955 and a master's degree from the Simmons University School of Social Work in 1957. She continued her life of service dedicated to advocating for those who could not do so for themselves through her endless research.

Following her college graduation, she married American politician Sander Levin with whom she had four children, including Andy Levin. She started her work at Oakland Child Guidance Clinic in Royal Oak, MI but shortly left to start a family and later dive into political work. Levin played a pivotal role in her husband's efforts to rewrite Michigan's special education laws. She later moved to Berkley, MI and she joined the Berkley Council for Better Schools to advocate for better public education.

As the wife of a US congressman, Levin developed her own career in public service, focusing on promoting research on the mental health of children, especially those with disabilities. She was an advocate for scientific research examining development in the very first years of life, which was found to play a vital role in mental health in adulthood. She was praised for her ability to encourage and inspire other scientists to pursue research in this area.

Levin died of breast cancer on September 4, 2008.

Representative publications

 * Pharis, M. E., & Levin, V. S. (1991). " A person to talk to who really cared": High-risk mothers' evaluations of services in an intensive intervention research program. Child Welfare: Journal of Policy, Practice, and Program, 70(3), 307–320.
 * Silverman M. M. & Levin V. S. (1985) Research on the prevention of psychological disorders of infancy: A federal perspective. In D. Drotar (eds) New Directions in Failure to Thrive (pp. 3-16). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5095-8_1