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Posted on: June 20, 2012
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Posted By: Laura Hoopes

RIP, Phoebe S. Leboy, Farewell to a Giant

Aa Aa Aa
Dear friends of women in science,

Phoebe S. Leboy has written for this forum and often responded with relevant facts when we debated issues and needed hard data. Sadly, she passed away on June 18, 2012 at her home in Philadelphia. Phoebe Leboy was a founding member of Association for Women in Science (AWIS) and served as its president after she retired from academia in 2008 and 2009. Her recent grant through AWIS, to support efforts by societies to understand the reasons why few women won scientific awards and to intervene to improve the situation, has helped a number of societies and is just being extended to others, as we had discussed earlier with the guest posting from Alice Popejoy.
Phoebe Leboy was graduated with a baccalaureate degree from Swarthmore and received the PhD from Bryn Mawr. For many years, she was a faculty member in Biochemistry at University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, where she did enormous service to the scientific community through NIH and NSF in addition to conducting her research and training activities. Our paths crossed through an earlier mutual interest in DNA methylation as a regulatory mechanism, and I was enthusiastic about her contributions to our forum.
Unlike many women in science who might decide to keep quiet until after tenure or until after they are full professors, Leboy tirelessly worked for women in science to be treated fairly for over forty years, both at her own institution, where she co-chaired the Task Force on Gender Equity, and nationally, through her work with AWIS and with the MIT/9 Consortium on gender equity in science. In her honor, AWIS has inaugurated an endowed fellowhip called the Phoebe Starfield Leboy Public Policy Fellowship.
We will miss you both personally and in our efforts to foster equity for women in science, Phoebe Leboy. You were a giant presence among us, and we owe you many thanks for your voice.
sincerely,
Laura Hoopes
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Community

Just learned of the loss of Phoebe. I knew Phoebe in the mid to late 1970s when I was a graduate student at Penn. Phoebe was always interested in my work (I worked with a great advisor, John Furth) and in me. Her graduate students greatly admired her and felt that they were lucky to have her as their advisor. Later, when I was a post-doc and still at Penn I would occasionally run into Phoebe, which was a highlight of the day. I never realized what ground breaking she did for women in science until one day she told me that I was one of a few male grad students who showed her respect! My astonishment was evident to Phoebe, who then told me about the difficulties women faced at Penn and in science.

Today, I am faculty at the Univ Massachusetts Boston. When I teach my undergrad Molecular Biology course, at least one review article by Phoebe is required reading. She lives on through her science.

From:  steven ackerman |  November 6, 2012
Community

Hi Susan,
I'm glad you got to meet her. She was a real fireball of energy for women in science and you are one of her successors, for sure. Thanks for all you do!
cheers,
Laura

From:  Laura Hoopes |  June 20, 2012
Community

I'm so sorry to hear this news. She was a speaker here at USC a few years ago, a real tiger for women and I'm so glad I got to meet her.

From:  Susan  Forsburg |  June 20, 2012
Community

Hi Dina and Amanda,

I will feel her loss too. I do think she was a go-to person in the DC rolodexes and when she got the call, she was always ready with relevant data and convincing arguments. I'm not quite sure who will step into the cavity she leaves in policy circles. I hope they find someone good very fast, though.

Amanda, no, don't call it cowardice. We have a lot to lose. But that's no reason we shouldn't be extra thankful for people like Phoebe who didn't count the personal cost and went ahead in the darkest days, advocating for fairness.

cheers,
Laura

From:  Laura Hoopes |  June 20, 2012
Community

Hi Laura,

I'm one of the more cowardly or self-serving women who always calculates the risk to myself of speaking out and then decides. Phoebe was never that way. She was not rude or scornful, but she was highly determined to get a fair shake for us all. I feel grateful to her, and a bit guilty, today.

ARC

From:  Amanda C |  June 20, 2012
Community

Oh, no. I enjoyed her contributions and really felt her presence as a bulwark protecting women's rights. In these days of threats to women everywhere, the lost of Phoebe Leboy is indeed a fell blow to women in science as we hope to hold on to and increase our gains. RIP indeed.
Dina P

From:  Dina P |  June 20, 2012
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