**Wednesday, March 30th at 12:15pmET**
WASHINGTON—M.K. Lever, doctoral candidate, sportswriter and author of Surviving the Second Tier, will be a featured panelist on a virtual summit to discuss the 'Gross Inequities in College Sports." Lever's book, a novel centered on college athletes in a bleak dystopian future, fits in perfectly with topics covered in the summit.
"I wrote this book to educate readers about the reality of the college sports industry, as someone who has been there before," shares Lever. "Sometimes, facts and statistics don't stick with people and since we are intrinsically wired to follow narratives, I wanted to tell people a story in hopes that the message would resonate in a unique and powerful way. I wanted to give college sports the 1984 treatment and create a narrative that would be impactful and a little unsettling."
U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and U.S. Representative Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) on Wednesday starting at 12:15pmET will host Madness, Inc., a live virtual summit featuring three panels with current and former college athletes and advocates to discuss the gross inequities in college sports and how we fix them.
Murphy along with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and U.S. Representatives Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) introduced The College Athlete Right to Organize Act, legislation to provide collective bargaining rights for college athletes. Murphy and Trahan also wrote the College Athlete Economic Freedom Act, which grants unrestricted rights to college athletes over the use of their name, image, and likeness. Blumenthal and Booker authored the College Athletes Bill of Rights to guarantee fair and equitable compensation, enforceable health and safety standards, and improved educational opportunities for all college athletes.
12:25pm: Empowering Athletes, Moderated by U.S. Senator Murphy
· U.S. Representative Jamaal Bowman, Co-sponsor of the College Athlete Right to Organize Act
· Bart Sheard, Legislative Representative with the AFL-CIO
· Kassidy Woods, Member of University of Northern Colorado Football Team
1:00pm: Achieving Gender Equity, Moderated by U.S. Representative Lori Trahan
· Sedona Prince, Member of Oregon Women's Basketball Team
· Sydney Moore, Voice in Sport Representative and Member of Cornell Volleyball Team
· Katie Lever, Chief Communications Officer of the Drake Group and former Western Kentucky University Track and Cross Country Runner and author of Surviving the Second Tier.
1:55pm: Protecting Athlete Wellbeing, Moderated by U.S. Senators Blumenthal and Booker
· Ramogi Huma, Executive Director of the National College Players Association and Former UCLA Football Player
· Tim Nevius, Nevius Legal and Former University of Dayton Baseball Player
· Brittany Collens, Professional Tennis Player and Former UMass-Amherst College Athlete
LIVESTREAM: The event will be livestreaming here
Surviving the Second Tier, Hugo House Publishers, 429 pages, available in Kindle and paperback on Amazon
About M.K. Lever: M. K. Lever is a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas, researching NCAA rhetoric and policy, and working as a freelance sportswriter and sports consultant. She graduated from Western Kentucky University with a B.A. in Communication Studies and an M.A. in Organizational Communication. While at WKU, she was a Division 1 athlete running track and cross country and was a two-time Sun Belt Conference champion in track and field (indoor and outdoor).
Lever's debut novel, Surviving the Second Tier, combines her personal experiences as an athlete with her academic research to bring attention to issues such as corruption, censorship, exploitation, and abuse that affect the lives of the athletes within the college sports industry. Lever is an advocate for college athletes and resides in Austin, TX.
Media Contact: For a review copy of Surviving the Second Tier or to arrange an interview with M.K. Lever, contact Scott Lorenz of Westwind Communications Book Marketing at scottlorenz@westwindcos.com or by phone at 248-705-2214. Reach Lorenz on twitter @abookpublicist