Paul P. Lee, MD, JD, is the F. Bruce Fralick Professor and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Michigan and director of the university’s W.K. Kellogg Eye Center.
A graduate of the University of Michigan (bachelor’s and medical degrees) and Columbia Law School, he has served the American Academy of Ophthalmology in several capacities: methodologist for the glaucoma and Retina Preferred Practice Patterns in the 1990s; serving on numerous committees, working groups and task forces (particularly on future perspectives and initiatives), the Academy’s Board of Trustees (2000-04), the advisory board of the Hoskins Center and currently on the Minority Ophthalmology Mentoring Executive Committee and as chair of the task force on Disparities in Visual Health.
Dr. Lee was also co-chair of the American Medical Association-Academy Consortium Task Force on Quality Measures for Pay for Performance in the mid-2000s and received the Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.
Dr. Lee is national expert in understanding and improving eye and health care and health policy through research funding from the National Institutes of Health, Research to Prevent Blindness, industry and many foundations. He has served as a consultant for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, as well as the Rand Corp.
For his contributions, he has received an Alcon Research Institute Award, the Lew Wasserman Award from Research to Prevent Blindness, recognition awards from the Academy’s, the Heed-Gutman Award, a Gold Fellow of Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) and numerous named lectures. Dr. Lee has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis, as well as the Glaucoma Research Society.
Dr. Lee currently serves as president of National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research/Alliance for Eye and Vision (NAEVR/AEVR), president of the Association of University of Professors of Ophthalmology (AUPO), and a member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Heed Fellows and the Ophthalmology Foundation.
Dr. Lee previously served as chair of the American Board of Ophthalmology Board of Directors, ARVO Foundation chair, Chandler-Grant Society president and member of the American Glaucoma Society Board of Trustees.
Dr. Lee completed his internship in internal Medicine at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, ophthalmology residency at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins, and glaucoma fellowship at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. Prior to returning to Michigan, Dr. Lee was vice-chair and the Gills Professor as well as senior adviser to the chancellor at Duke and a faculty member at the Doheny Eye Institute at the University of Southern California.
Dr. Lee is most proud of the accomplishments of colleagues he has worked with and mentored during their careers together. From my first day of residency and continuing to this day, I count myself as one of the lucky recipients of his mentorship.
I am proud to present Dr. Paul Lee as my 2021 American Academy of Ophthalmology guest of honor.