The Letter

From Washington Jewish Week

Ann Leopold Kaplan, a health policy attorney who also had leadership roles in The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, died May 24. She was 50.

“If there was a hard issue to tackle, a project that needed forcefulness with a soft touch, hard work with effective guidance, you would go to Ann because she would bring all of that to the project and you knew that others would follow her leadership – because that is who Ann was,” longtime friend and colleague Lynn Shapiro Snyder said at Kaplan’s funeral, held May 26 at Congregation Beth El in Bethesda…

…Ann Leopold was born on Sept. 19, 1962, in Harrisburg, Pa. She received her bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Pittsburgh, where she was a Chancellor’s Scholar. She received her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

In 1987, she joined the national law firm Epstein Becker and Green, where Snyder is a senior member. “Ann grew from a talented starting lawyer, to being my partner and later, my client,” Snyder said.

She became a client after leaving EBG in 2004 to become vice president and deputy general counsel of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, the national trade association for the country’s leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology research companies.

President George W. Bush had just signed into law the Medicare Modernization Act providing a prescription drug benefit for Medicare beneficiaries, known as Medicare Part D. PhRMA needed “a health regulatory attorney who understood Medicare and managed care. Ann fit the bill,” Snyder said.

Kaplan was a member of the team that developed the PhRMA Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals that was approved in 2008.

“She was the ultimate multi-tasker,” Snyder said. “People like her get a lot of pleasure knowing they get the best use of their time while they’re alive. It’s not a burden. It’s a pleasure.”

“People would confide in her and she would care for them, and you’d have no idea how hectic her life was,” Harris said. “She would be the person who people would go to at a time like this.”

Ann Leopold Kaplan was the devoted mother of Jeremy, Ilana and Daphne; beloved wife of Lawrence; loving daughter of Marx S. and Joan Y. Leopold  of Harrisburg, Pa.; sister of Matthew (Cathy), John (Teresa), David (Laura), Debbie (Jonathan); daughter-in-law of Stewart and Lynn Kaplan of Tarpon Springs, Fla., sister- in-law of Elisa Kaplan Siegel; aunt, cousin, friend and colleague.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to LUNGevity Foundation, The Jewish Federation of G reater Washington or the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School.

Dear Friends,

It is with great sadness that I write to tell you that we will have to postpone the opening of the new exhibition, Bathers by Ben Solowey at the Studio of Ben Solowey from June 1st to June 8th, due to the sudden death of

Ben Solowey’s niece, and my sister, Ann Leopold Kaplan. We regret any inconvenience that this may cause you. We will open the show on Saturday, June 8th, and as usual, we will open the Solowey home and fill it with home baked goods. Our regular hours will continue on Saturdays and Sundays through June 16th, and then by appointment through August. This will be the only time the Solowey home is open this year, so we hope to see you now on June 8th.

We’ll see you when we do,

David Leopold, Director