Yang Jae Lee, MD, a third-year resident in the Neuroscience Research Training Program, is one of 33 physician-scientists across all medical specialties to have been selected to receive the 2024 Emerging-Generation (E-Gen) Award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI).
The award is a significant recognition of early-career achievements and recognizes post-MD, pre-faculty appointment physician-scientists who are engaged in immersive research.
Lee is embarking on a career in global mental health research. He has been working in a rural region of Uganda for the past nine years, building relationships with the local community and government.
He founded and has led the 501©3 organization Empower Through Health (ETH) since 2018. ETH has provided healthcare (including mental) to over 40,000 people, mentored over 150 Ugandan and American predoctoral students in global health practice, and built a research infrastructure that can conduct complex projects efficiently. He has shown an ability to organize and lead teams in his research utilizing the infrastructure built within ETH.
His research focuses on investigating and eliminating mental illness stigma and improving outcomes for people with mental illness in rural Uganda and similar low-income settings.