From 2002 to 2009, Schlesinger led the Drum Major Institute, a think tank founded in 1961 during the American Civil Rights Movement by Harry H. Wachtel. During her tenure as executive director, DMI released several policy papers to national audiences. including: Congress at the Midterm: Their Middle-Class Record and Principles for an Immigration Policy to Strengthen and Expand the American Middle Class. In February 2009, she took leave from that position to work as a policy adviser to the re-election campaign of Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg.