ASCI / Emerging-Generation Awards, 2024
The Emerging Generation Awards (E-Gen Awards) recognize post-MD, pre-faculty appointment physician-scientists who are meaningfully engaged in immersive research.
About the awardee
Driven by a curiosity of the human condition, Yang Jae Lee, MD spent two gap years immersing and working around the world. In the process of building relationships across global socioeconomic strata, he felt visceral frustration about the lack of healthcare in many places, where there was little opportunity for people to determine their own destinies.
With this discomfort, Dr. Lee leveraged connections that he made working in Uganda from 2015 to 2017 on research, journalism, and consulting to start Empower Through Health (ETH), a 501(c)3 global health organization providing healthcare to a catchment area of 70,000 people in rural Uganda in a district of 445,000 people served by only one practicing physician. Since establishing ETH during his first year of medical school, they have provided direct healthcare to over 10,000 patients per year, conducted public health education programs for 70,000 people, hosted hundreds of Ugandan and American predoctoral students with our fellowship programs, and developed a productive global health research infrastructure.
Dr. Lee is a driven advocate for the most marginalized populations. His career as a physician scientist focusing on improving mental healthcare access in low-income populations will give him an avenue to expand his impact from thousands to millions through finding best and scalable practices. He looks forward to continuing to utilize his experiences in research, clinical training, team building, and intercultural interactions to help make mental health accessible to all.