Dani Lever (Class of 2005)
is a communications manager on Facebook's Strategic Response Communications team, where she manages the company's responses to breaking issues related to products and policies. Before beginning her role in September, she was the director of communications in Governor Cuomo's office and led the communications strategy for New York State, including its COVID-19 response.
Q: Tell us a bit about your career trajectory.
Dani Lever: I graduated in 2009 from college with a journalism major and like most graduates, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do. I was graduating at a time when the newspaper industry was really shifting. I took a fellowship with the Clinton Foundation and worked in their press office where I worked with reporters covering the President and the work of the Foundation. I realized that the work I did there aligned more with my interests than traditional journalism had. I had also worked on President Obama's 2008 campaign when I was in college and loved politics, so I decided to pursue a career at the confluence of press and politics.
After the Clinton Foundation, I interned for then Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, consulted for the Democratic Governors Association on their 2010 campaign cycle, and was press secretary for Bill Thompson's campaign for New York City mayor in 2013. I then went back to the Governor’s office in 2014 as the first deputy press secretary and was promoted to press secretary in 2016. I was then communications director on the Governor's 2018 reelection campaign and had the same title in state government for the last two years. In that role, I oversaw the state's press office, speech-writing team, and digital team.
Q: Does your path right now align with what you expected to do when you “grew up”?
DL: Not at all. I was taught at a young age that public service and giving back to your community is extremely important. So while I started out early in politics, the bulk of my career was spent in government service. Being a public servant is incredibly rewarding work, and I was so fortunate to have had the opportunity to work on concrete policies that would help 19.5 million people have better lives.
I was lucky to work for a governor who believed in delivering tangible results. I was able to see how effective government could be. In politics or government, you often see people talking about policies, but not actually implementing them. I was part of an administration that achieved great things for the people of New York. We were the first big state to pass marriage equality, first to pass $15 minimum wage, paid family leave, and the strongest gun laws in the entire nation, which were passed long before the federal government tried to take its own measures related to gun safety and tuition-free college. All of these major initiatives changed millions of people’s lives daily. Working for the Governor proved that government could be a real force for good and a force for change and that’s what kept me there so long.
Q: What was your work like in Cuomo’s office before Coronavirus?
DL: It was a lot of work. Because the Governor is results oriented and results driven, we were constantly working 18-hour days. It starts from the top. He is the hardest working person I’ve ever known and he sets a really high bar for the people who work for him. It’s an incredible team of talented individuals and we wanted to work as hard as he did.
Q: How did your work evolve from March through August, both as Coronavirus soared and as Governor Cuomo became more and more popular?
DL: Over the course of my time at the Governor's office, we dealt with a lot of challenges, but we had never been confronted with such a monumental challenge before. Obviously Coronavirus was a once-in-a-century pandemic, and the Governor and our team had to not only anticipate the needs of 19.5 million people, but meet them. We were making one million impossible choices, all based on the information we had which was highly scarce at the time.
Every day we were making life-altering decisions for New Yorkers, like closing schools or instating the New York on Pause order (which forced New Yorkers to stay home), mandating the use of masks, shutting down the subways overnight to clean them. Every day there were more to make. Moving essential workers around the city when we closed the subways, finding childcare for healthcare workers who have to go to work every day, closing playgrounds, canceling elective surgeries in hospitals so there was additional space for COVID-19 patients, etc.
What we did—and the Governor talked about this a lot—was make these decisions based on science, facts, and numbers because that’s all we could do. What was most successful was that we figured out how to communicate those actions to the public. My main role was calculating how to prioritize the flow of information. We realized our daily briefings had transitioned into more than just sharing facts with the public. They became this national focus that provided people across the country—at times the world—with a sane and responsible voice that was absent at the federal level. We realized that not only was that voice really needed, but it was really appreciated.
There was an enormous level of crisis and fear, and people wanted to feel connected to others who were going through the same thing. The public relied on the transparency and trust that we were providing.
Q: What was your day-to-day like at work during the COVID-19 response?
DL: We were in the office between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. every morning and we were in crunch mode until our daily briefings at 11:30 a.m. We would get briefed on the numbers: the hospitalizations, the infection rates, and the death tolls. Then based on those numbers, the science, and the data, we consulted with our health team, private institutions, the World Health Organization, etc. and then we would make and announce these decisions. After the Governor did his briefings, the reporters would write stories based on the news he shared. My job would be to shape those news stories to accurately reflect the announcements that the Governor made.
Q: How did you decide to switch jobs and begin working at Facebook?
DL: The decision didn't come lightly, but I really wanted private sector experience. I’m learning so much in a completely different industry and because Facebook is so global and involved in all major world issues, I still feel very connected to my past experiences. I am on the Strategic Response Communications team, where I am still working on critical matters and policies that impact millions of people.
Q: What has the transition been like from government to Facebook?
DL: The team at Facebook faces many challenges and works incredibly hard, so in that regard the jobs are very similar and the transition has been easy. There will always be a difference between working for the people and working for a private company, but it is critical work, and Facebook is made up of the best and the brightest and I look forward to learning new skill sets.
Q: What advice would you give to alumni who are interested in press or politics?
DL: It pains me to say it, but you have to start at the bottom. These are "learn by doing" fields, and you need real life experience to understand how to operate in them. It's listening to people talk to reporters; it’s reading and drafting press releases and hundreds of sets of talking points; it's setting up press conferences with a podium that you lugged 10 stops on the subway (I know, I've done it). Do not be discouraged to take internships, or an entry level position as a press assistant, or work your way up on a local political campaign. It's okay to start local working on a mayoral race or a city council race or a state senate race; it can often be more valuable than working on a presidential campaign because you will be a bigger fish in a smaller pond with more responsibility. When in doubt, you can always call me to gut check!
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