Miriam Strickman Levitas

Miriam Strickman Levitas' multi-faceted background has allowed her to enjoy great opportunities in multiple professions and arenas:

Filling a need, a perceived void, or creating what hasn't ever existed before – by using her talent and expertise – is what Miriam has always been known to do … innovating and producing things that matter and make a difference!

In 1975, Miriam became the founding Administrator of the Atlanta Stanley H. Kaplan Educational Center, the oldest and largest test preparation center in the world, remaining in that position for 10 years … growing the center from a few students to more than 1000 students. She was instrumental in facilitating the inclusion of the National Medical Board test preparation training into the Morehouse Medical School curriculum under the direction of Dr. Louis Sullivan, as well as implementing SAT test preparation for students in the Atlanta Public School system under the direction of Dr. Alonzo Crim.

Miriam launched her television career in 1989 as a writer, producer and host of At Your Service, a community service program for cable television, showcasing some of Atlanta's Community Service Agencies to the population of Georgia – for information and education purposes … The Center for the Visually Impaired, The Georgia Radio Reading Service, Jewish Family and Career Services and Scottish Rite Children's Hospital Critical Care Service with helicopter transport. Her ground-breaking one-hour TV program, Intergenerational Relationships, along with her community service agency programming, were firsts to be broadcast in Georgia. Miriam researched, produced and co-hosted a two-hour WPBA special, The Atlanta Family … a portrait of Atlanta's culturally diverse families. She wrote, produced and moderated Rap–The–Gap, an intergenerational workshop for Gerontology Conferences, taped for television. She wrote A Casual Presence, an intergenerational program that was earmarked for implementation into public schools to enhance the family unit and specifically address violence, truancy and delinquency.

Her on-camera interviews with celebrities and dignitaries include: Art Linkletter, Elliott Roosevelt, Celestine Sibley, author Roy Blount, Parade Magazine's Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld, Chefs Larry Forgione, the premier chef of American Cuisine, Edna Lewis, the Grande Dame of Southern Cooking, and New Orleans's star Paul Prudhomme. She was an interviewer on The Talk of the Town, WTLK TV, and a writer and host for the radio show Kitchen Kapers, featuring descriptions and methods of cooking for audiences of the Georgia Radio Reading Service – programming for the visually impaired.

During her first term as President of Ahavath Achim Sisterhood (1977–1979), while she was Administrator of the Stanley H. Kaplan Educational Center, Miriam created, co-wrote and produced the extraordinarily successful fundraiser for the Donor event – A Tsouris Line – with a cast that included the entire spiritual and professional staff of the synagogue, sisterhood members and prominent community leaders.

In her second term as President (1996–1998), Miriam created the First City-Wide Sisterhood Symposium focusing on Women's Health Issues of the 90's, held at Ahavath Achim Synagogue, featuring a faculty of five physicians, a psychologist and a nurse practitioner. This was a forerunner to other Women's Health Awareness Forums in Atlanta.

She co-wrote and produced A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Bimah, starring Rabbi Bob Alper; Breakfast with The Mittlemans, starring Wendy Kamenoff & Steve Mittleman; and A Star Studded Event, starring local stars in the Ahavath Achim Sisterhood Constellation – all of which were extraordinarily successful Donor events, open to the Atlanta community.

Miriam designed the image/logo for Ahavath Achim Sisterhood: A Legacy from Our Four Matriarchs, with the narrative: "The Four Matriarchs – Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah – symbolizing strength and grace, open to new challenges, new paths and opportunities, embracing Jewish heritage and tradition while encompassing the total synagogue community." This logo made its debut on the premier 1997–1998 cover of the Ahavath Achim Sisterhood Synagogue Directory (AASSD), which was created as a viable fundraiser. "A Legacy From Our Four Matriarchs" continues to be the face of The Ahavath Achim Sisterhood.

The Most Elegant "Tea at the Ritz" and "Who's Bringing In The Great Chefs?" were two first-of-their-kind fundraisers in Atlanta that Miriam created and orchestrated for Scottish Rite Children's Hospital annually for four years – all presented at The Ritz-Carlton in Buckhead. For The Most Elegant "Tea at the Ritz," she personally worked with the fashion consultant at Neiman Marcus and celebrity designers to select the Haute Couture to be displayed, designed invitations, table décor, selected the menu and booked the musical segment. For Who's Bringing In The Great Chefs?, she personally invited four celebrity chefs from different parts of the country for each event, and made the selection of what they would create for the course they were preparing. She designed all print material for the events, which were publicized in regional magazines. Miriam fielded calls from other organizations inquiring about these "new events!" (The fundraisers The Most Elegant Tea At The Ritz and Who's Bringing In The Great Chefs raised in excess of one million dollars.)

Miriam co-wrote lyrics for music performed at fundraising events for Hadassah and the Bremen Jewish Museum.

For the 120th anniversary of The Ahavath Achim Congregation, Miriam produced – for a one-night-only benefit performance at the historic Rialto Center for the Arts in Atlanta – the New York production of Golda's Balcony, the longest running one-woman show in the history of Broadway. It was a community-wide event, and very successful!

Miriam attended Temple University on a four-year Board of Education Music Scholarship. She is an accomplished pianist and performed with the Frankford Symphony and Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, as well as appearing on the Paul Whiteman Show at Radio City Music Hall. Her conducting debut was with the world-renowned Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at Chastain Park, where she conducted The Salute to America by Morton Gould on July 4th, 1992. She holds a degree in Interior Design from La Salle Extension University, certification in Television Production from People's TV, and certification in Gerontology and Community Service from Georgia State University. Miriam is a member of IFDA – International Furnishing and Design Association, Women in Film/Video Atlanta, Image Film and Video, and American Women in Radio and Television. She served on the board of The Brevard Music Center.

Published articles include "Linking the Generations," "Building Bridges for Today's Children," and "It's All About Breasts, Attitudes: Defining Who We Are." A work in progress is Non Exempt: The Story of Beauty and the Breast, a documentary film about women, breasts, and the stunning reality of how breast cancer has been woven into the tapestry of women's lives throughout history.

Miriam has been recognized in Who's Who of American Women, Who's Who in Education, Who's Who in the South and Southwest, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, and Who's Who of American Inventors.

She was included in the 2008–2009 edition of Who's Who of American Women, which featured "Then and Now," a segment honoring pioneering women from the First Edition, published in 1958, alongside their modern contemporaries in 2008. Inductee: The Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, 2018.