At 90, Levetan Still Believes in Power of Community

Self-described as “multi-faceted,” Liane Levetan has led a purposeful life, most of it dedicated to public service focused on local government. As the first woman to serve as DeKalb County CEO, she is well known and respected for her bold leadership, innovative initiatives and brokering collaborations resulting in improvements benefiting many communities.

In the Jewish community, she taught Sunday school for 13 years at Ahavath Achim Synagogue and is a life member of Hadassah, which awarded her its Myrtle Wreath. Having recently turned 90, she may have slowed down, but she certainly isn’t done. And “honey,” does she have stories!

If you ask Levetan how her career began, she describes meeting a psychologist while attending Georgia State that led her to work as an educator for special needs children. At first, she had little related training but just a sincere desire to help. Levetan left her bank job, took coursework, and began work at a clinic and then in a new school for children who were otherwise excluded from public schools.

Her advocacy at the state Capitol supporting legislation for developmentally disabled children and becoming a successful real estate agent presented new opportunities. Involvement with organizations like DeKalb Democrats and League of Women Voters led Levetan to work on election campaigns and begin attending county commission meetings with interest in issues like zoning. Later, she became friends with Rosalyn Carter, the president’s wife, who shared many of Levetan’s interests in health and special education.

It was taking a diverse group of more than 50 women to Washington, D.C., for the first Democratic women’s meeting in 1964 that Levetan tells the story about how she persuaded Sen. Richard Russell to call President Lyndon Johnson to meet with some of the women in the Rose Garden, which, to her surprise, Johnson did.
“I was never bashful,” quips Levetan. “Never.”

Levetan’s Southern style belies her early life. Born Liane Raab in 1936 in Vienna, German was her first language. When the Nazis approached, her family barely escaped Austria to London. From age 4 until 15, Liane lived in England, surviving tuberculosis and the Nazi Blitz, the family often hiding below in the Underground subway stations. During those years, her mother worked as a seamstress and her father had a factory job making small suitcases for the military.

Her family came to the United States in 1951, first to Washington, D.C., before coming to Atlanta, where her father opened Willy’s Grocery at Jackson and Irwin Streets. At age 18, Liane married Phil Levetan. The couple raised two daughters, Resa and Penny, and celebrated 61 years of marriage before Phil’s passing in 2016. Levetan has four grandchildren and one great-grandson.

While her first run at politics wasn’t successful, in 1975 she became the first elected woman on the DeKalb County Commission, representing District 2, (includes Brookhaven, Emory and Decatur), for 10 years. Along with then-Decatur Mayor Ann Crichton, Levetan persuaded MARTA to build the train station in downtown Decatur instead of farther out, which proved to be a great asset to Decatur’s growth.

When DeKalb changed its government to an executive format, Levetan ran against Manuel Maloof. “He was good friends with me on the commission, but he couldn’t understand how I could run. I wanted to be the first woman executive.”

When Maloof won the election, Levetan recalled, “I was upset that night, but I went right over to his headquarters and gave him a big hug and congratulated him. And I think that was in the paper in the Atlanta Journal. Well, he would say, ‘Girl, I told you you couldn’t beat me.’ I mean, I can hear him saying that, but it was OK. And after his two terms, Manuel supported me running for CEO. As a matter of fact, his son, Tommy, worked putting up yard signs.”

Levetan did succeed Maloof to become the first woman CEO of DeKalb County, serving two terms from 1993 to 2000. During her tenure, Levetan efficiently oversaw an $800 million budget and sought to improve neighborhoods county-wide. Among many successes, Levetan worked with commissioners to acquire the old Brook Run mental health center property in Dunwoody for conversion to greenspace. In 2021, that park was re-named Liane Levetan Park at Brook Run.

Likewise, she supported what became the Porter Sanford III Arts Center in south DeKalb.

Under her leadership in 1998, DeKalb won the National Civic Leagues’ All America City Award, given to 10 local governments annually that demonstrate a high degree of collaborative community building. To celebrate the award, Levetan took a delegation of 100, including baseball star Hank Aaron and DeKalb children, where they sang the song “We Are Family” at the presentation in Mobile, Ala.

“It was a wonderful feeling,” Levetan recalled.

Lorraine Cochran-Johnson, DeKalb County’s current CEO, told the AJT: “Liane Levetan is a true trailblazer whose leadership helped shape the future of DeKalb County. As the first woman to serve as DeKalb County CEO, she broke barriers and demonstrated that effective leadership is rooted in vision, courage, and a deep commitment to public service.”

After her CEO terms, Levetan served in the State Senate from 2002 to 2004. While she admits she sometimes sparred with Republican colleagues on issues such as abortion, she speaks with pride about serving on the ethics and education committees and sponsoring a bill that started the state’s investment in bonds for Israel.

Sam Olens, former state attorney general and now partner at the Dentons law firm, said of Levetan: “While elected, she was a tireless public servant who sought to bring people together. DeKalb was in good hands with her leadership style, work ethic, and caring personality. She appreciated and enjoyed teaming with the non-profit community and has always been a positive voice for the Jewish community.”

Levetan is still busy supporting issues that are important to her. She is the oldest serving member of the Atlanta Regional Commission, is a board member of the Friends group of the Georgia Holocaust Commission, and she is helping develop a new autism center project in Decatur.

Cochran-Johnson added: “Beyond her historic accomplishments, what stands out most about Ms. Levetan is her unwavering dedication to community and her ability to bring people together around a shared purpose. Her legacy continues to inspire generations of public servants, including those of us who have had the privilege of follow in her footsteps.”

For her part, Levetan says: “I’ve always felt that local government is closest to the people,” adding, she is glad that “people and businesses now realize that working with community projects together is essential for a great community. You have to collaborate to get things done.”