It is with a heavy heart that I begin with news of the death of one of our own, as Leigh Warren passed away June 12. I have heard from a number of ’96s with fond memories of Leigh during our time in Hanover, where she majored in chemistry and was active in both Chamber Singers and the Wind Symphony. Her Dartmouth major was a stepping stone to greater things, as she worked as a chemist for Roche Diagnostics before obtaining her Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2002. From there her career became more policy focused, obtaining her J.D. from Columbia University’s School of Law in 2006 before moving into private practice with an emphasis on patent litigation and prosecution. She was awarded her LL.M. in health law and policy from American University’s Washington College of Law in 2010 and settled in Rockville, Maryland, after taking a position within the office of general counsel, public health division, of U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS). She worked with the DHHS until the time of her passing. Leigh is survived by her parents, Paul and Judith, and sister Joy, and we extend our deepest condolences to her loved ones and Dartmouth friends alike. 


While we collectively mourn Leigh’s passing, there is other, happier class news to report as well. It was recently announced that Erika Meitner had received a U.S. scholar award from the Fulbright Commission. Erika, an associate professor of English at Virginia Tech since 2007, will be the Distinguished Scholar in Creative Writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at Queen’s University Belfast in North Ireland in spring 2015; as such she will not only assist with undergraduate coursework in creative writing and poetry, but also be afforded with the incredible opportunity to immerse herself in the thriving literary scenes of Ireland and the United Kingdom while exploring Anglo-Irish influences on American poetry. She has published three books and has a fourth, Copia! will be released in September. Her first work, Inventory at the All-Night Drugstore, was the recipient of the Anhinga Press Prize for Poetry in 2002, and her second, Ideal Cities, was a 2009 National Poetry Series winner. Part of Erika’s time in Belfast will be spent working on Fragments from Holymoleyland, a collection of poems exploring the ways in which individuals and communities respond to violent events (which she began writing after the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy in 2012).


In life news, celebration is in order in recognition of a few recent classmate nuptials and the arrival of a few ’96 offspring! Andrew Kingsdale and Kate Possin were married in a San Francisco Bay-side ceremony on May 4, while Ryan Carey and his bride, Beth Gilroy, were wed overlooking Mount Hood and the Hood River region of Ryan’s beloved Oregon in late July. Congratulations to both lovely couples and may your many years together be filled with much love, health and happiness! 


We’re also in the midst of a mini ’96 baby boom, with several classmates recently welcoming little ones and a few more expecting in the months ahead! Anh-Thu Cunnion and her husband, Jeff Siegel, welcomed son Mason in late May; Mason joins elder twin brothers Henry and Owen, who reached the ripe old age of 3 in March. And cardiologist slash singer-songwriter Suzie Brown Sax and her singer-songwriter husband, Scot, announced their latest collaboration—Josephine “Josie” Sax—born in April after the couple’s relocation to Nashville, Tennessee, earlier in the year (where Suzie also works at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in all her “free time”).


—Garrett Gil de Rubio, 1062 Middlebrooke Drive, Canton, GA 30115; ggdr@alum.dartmouth.org