[2] Before joining the CSULA faculty in 1990, she taught sociology at Yale, Northwestern, UCLA, and UCSD, and completed a post-doctoral program in health policy at RAND.
University of Chicago Press endorsements included James F. Short Jr., then president of the American Sociological Review, who said, “By addressing the most fundamental of problems addressed by the social sciences, [Soccer Madness] elevates sociology of sport to a subdiscipline of the highest importance,” while endorser Ian Taylor noted, “Lever’s interest in Brazilian soccer and her friendship with Pelé should become one of the folk tales of the sociology of sport.” The review in Scientific American concluded: "Lever has given the reader a small book as well written as it is thoughtful: the role of sport in human society is deserving more study, and this account is a happy example painted in the bright colors and sharp contrasts of Brazilian Life.
"[11] Federal Judge Nancy Gertner, in her book In Defense of Women: Memoirs of an Unrepentant Advocate, described the twofold challenges of Lever v. Northwestern: (1) the difficulty of proving a case based on disparate treatment and (2) the astronomical cost of litigation.
[13] She worked at the RAND Corporation, most notably on a study on how to safely lift the ban against gays in the military[14] and later a survey of 1000 street prostitutes in LA County.
Each of the teams’ internet surveys has been reanalyzed for social science, management, health, and medical audiences, two of their articles won awards (see publication notations).