SONDRA LEVIN

1956 - 2020

Dr. Sondra Warren Levin, MD  (Age 63)  
Of Olney, MD, lost her battle with chronic pulmonary disease and passed away on September 6, 2020 with her adoring husband at her side. Born October 5, 1956 at the U.S. Air Force base in Swindon, England, she grew up in Waterbury, CT where she later graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University. While at a Harvard Hillel party in December 1974, she met the love of her life, Ronald Levin, and they were married in June 1976. She received her medical degree from SUNY Downstate College of Medicine where she was hooded by her father, pediatrician Dr. Philip Warren. She subsequently completed her pediatrics residency at the University of Maryland and her Clinical Genetics fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She practiced General Pediatrics and Pediatric Genetics at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) and then the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) for 30 years, where she served as the Chief of Pediatric Genetics as well as an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) and an Adjunct Scientist at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Section of Developmental Genetics, prior to her retirement in 2015. A triple-threat clinician-educator-researcher, she won numerous awards for her teaching and for her research. She published over 50 scholarly articles on a range of topics in Genetics. Shortly before her initial bout of lupus cerebritis in 2014, she was first author on a publication in Lancet Neurology on a novel treatment for neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis. She had a keen intellect, and there was never a genetics fact she did not know or could not readily find in her archives. Sondra was a devoted wife and a loving mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, and aunt. Tragically, she fell terminally ill the very same day that her first granddaughter, Ella, was born. She was preceded in death by her parents, Dr. Philip Warren and Doris Warren. She is survived by her husband of 44 years, Dr. Ronald Levin, Sc.D. of Olney, MD, and their sons Dr. Jay Levin, MD of Hadley, MA and David Levin of Philadelphia, PA. She is also survived by her grandson Joey and granddaughter Ella, both of Hadley, MA as well as by her brother Dr. Steven Warren, MD of St. Petersburg, FL, her niece Allison Warren Gottermeier, and her nephew Michael Warren. Service was held on Monday, September 7, 2020, at 1 p.m. at Judean Memorial Gardens, 16225 Batchellors Forest Road, Olney, MD 20832. Memorial gifts in lieu of flowers can be directed to Hillel International.