Her dream was to be a Walt Disney Imagineer - a super cool job by anyone's standards - but our guest Cindy Levin's path took her in a slightly different but equally cool direction: working as an automobile engineer at GM's proving grounds. While she worked to eliminate vibrations in vehicles, she was allowed on company time to tutor kids in math for one hour per week. Reflecting back, Cindy recalls, "that was my favorite part of the week." Fast forward to becoming a new mom during a long, dark Chicago winter, when Cindy tapped into her dormant give-back-to-the-community reserves. She began writing letters to Congress and perhaps without knowing it at the time, started an advocacy career phase focused on shifting public policy in areas covering poverty, hunger, and global health. Now, as Cindy's children have begun following in mom's footsteps (many more letters going to Congress these days!), she is about a year away from finishing and publishing a book about how moms make great activists - impressive indeed! In this episode, learn what it takes to write a book, how volunteering is an ideal career springboard, what it is like to work for nonprofit organizations, and how one person's career journey brought her back to the causes she cares most about and making a better world for our kids.