On Friday, February 5th, the Metro Chamber will host their Annual Business Awards virtually to honor outstanding leaders and businesses who are making an impact in the Sacramento region. The Chamber will present a variety of prestigious awards, such as Sacramentan of the Year, Small Business of the Year, Businessman of the Year, and Businesswoman of the Year. The Chamber will also recognize a young professional who is involved with Metro EDGE for their contributions to the program and the Sacramento community. After a year that quickly became consumed with fighting a global pandemic, it seems fitting to honor Sacramento native Dr. Lenora Lee, an infectious disease physician who has been on the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the 2020 Metro EDGE Young Professional of the Year.
As a thought leader in her field, Dr. Lee rose to the challenge to lead her colleagues and community through the pandemic. In addition to providing her clinical expertise to the greater Sacramento region through social media posts, Dr. Lee generously donated her time in the height of the pandemic to participate in a Metro EDGE Instagram Live interview with Verna Sulpizio to share her COVID-19 knowledge with her local community.
Dr. Lee discovered her passion for infectious diseases during her second year of medical school at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York. After graduating, Dr. Lee found her way back to Sacramento for her Internal Medicine Residency and Chief Residency at UC Davis Medical Center, followed by a two year Infectious Diseases Fellowship also at UCDMC. Up until March 2020, she served in a hybrid role as an infectious diseases physician at Kaiser Permanente and teaching hospitalist for UC Davis residents and medical students. However since the pandemic, Dr. Lee has been focused on fighting COVID-19, but is still able to maintain her role as the Internal Medicine Clerkship Site Director for all medical students rotating through the hospital.
Outside of sharing her clinical expertise to help her community, Dr. Lee volunteers as Clinical Faculty at UC Davis Medical Center and with the Cornell Alumni Admissions Ambassador Network (CAAAN) as the co-chair for the Sacramento region. She has also been granted an Outstanding Kaiser Faculty Award (2015-2016), Sacramento’s 40 under 40 (2020), and Sacramento Magazine Top Doctors for the past several years.
When she is not fighting COVID-19 and helping educate medical professionals in her field, you can find her lifting barbells and strength training, running on the American River Bike Trail, on her spin bike at home, or spending time with her husband and two kids.
Dr. Lee knows that this pandemic has been devastating to all of us, but acknowledges that positive, creative, and innovative moments have occurred that we can all learn from and apply to the future. We are grateful to have Dr. Lenora Lee as part of Metro EDGE and are thrilled to honor her as the 2020 Young Professional of the Year for her achievements and contributions to the greater Sacramento community.
This post was written by Amanda Stayton, Metro EDGE's blog channel owner.
