Hedwig (Hedy) Lee, Ph.D.

Hedy Lee is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle. She received her BS in Policy Analysis from Cornell University in 2003 and her PhD in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2009. After receiving her PhD, she was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at the University of Michigan from 2009 to 2011. She is a faculty affiliate of the Center for Research on Demography and Ecology, West Coast Poverty Center, and Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences and co-leads the Northwest Region Scholars Strategy Network. She was also recently appointed to the 30-member Executive Council for UW’s new Population Health Initiative.  As a council-member she will lead the development of a 25-year vision for population health at the UW. She has a broad background in sociology and demography. Her research focuses on the social contexts that characterize the lives of vulnerable and racial/ethnic minority populations and how this shapes health and the production of health disparities. Her previous research involves working in interdisciplinary collaborations to examine relationships between race, racism, criminal justice contact, socioeconomic status, and multiple dimensions of social well-being and health.