Joyce Leveston’s Path From Switchboard Operator to Javits Center CEO

Leveston’s career began in the late 1980s at the San Diego Convention Center, where she worked as the facility's 92nd employee while her husband served in the Navy. Starting at a switchboard, she climbed through eight distinct roles, driven by a philosophy of mastering the immediate task at hand rather than obsessing over the next promotion. She emphasizes that professional growth often stems from exceeding expectations in entry-level duties and proactively taking initiative, even when it falls outside a formal job description.

Now managing 3,000 employees at the Javits Center, Leveston balances the logistical demands of 145 events annually with a focus on safety and delegation. Her tenure has required navigating high-pressure scenarios, from managing fire hazards to rejecting impractical event requests. She credits her success to learning when to say no and, crucially, building a team capable of operating independently. By trusting her staff to handle daily operations, Leveston views the ability to step away from the office as the ultimate metric of a leader's effectiveness.