In May 1972, Levinson co-founded the Center for Cuban Studies (CCS) as a nonprofit educational organization with
Saul Landau and
Lee Lockwood. The mission of the organization includes opposition to the
United States embargo against Cuba and support for the normalization of
relations through educational programs, including tours to Cuba. In March 1973, while Levinson was working as the director at the CCS office in
Greenwich Village, a bomb detonated in the building. In 1995, she advocated for businesses in the United States to oppose the economic embargo of Cuba, and told
The Oregonian, "It was businesspeople who brought about the ending of the embargo in Vietnam," and "If businesspeople really get behind ending the embargo in Cuba, it will happen." In 2013, Levinson told
The Atlantic, "We should be thinking about the embargo in terms of U.S. citizens' rights to travel where they want". Initially, the CCS coordinated educational trips to Cuba from the United States for academics, which helped overcome travel restrictions imposed by the United States and Cuba. more travel programs were able to be developed by the CCS. with regular exhibitions, and by 2016, its collection included over 10,000 Cuban works of art, including sculpture and paintings, with most of the collection imported directly by Levinson. CCS also developed the Lourdes Casal Library, which by 2007, held a collection of post-1959 materials from Cuba, including books, magazines, and newspapers. ==Works==