Mary M. Lee, MD, has been appointed chair of the Department of Pediatrics at UMass Medical School and physician-in-chief of the UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center.
Mary M. Lee, MD, has been appointed chair of the Department of Pediatrics at UMass Medical School and physician-in-chief of the UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center, announced Terence R. Flotte, MD, the Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor of Medicine, executive deputy chancellor, provost, dean of the School of Medicine and professor of pediatrics. Dr. Lee, professor of pediatrics and cell & developmental biology and director of the division of pediatric endocrinology, has served as interim chair since October 2012. She has been at UMMS and UMass Memorial since 2004 and succeeds Marianne E. Felice, MD, who led the department since 1998.
“Since last fall, when Marianne E. Felice, MD, stepped down as chair, the Department of Pediatrics and the UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center have been led, with great vision and thoughtfulness, by Dr. Lee,” said Dr. Flotte, in making the announcement with Eric Dickson, MD, the president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health Care.
“The search for a pediatric department chair took into account the range of research, teaching, clinical and service activities that take place within the department and the Children’s Medical Center,” said Flotte. “The search committee, under the leadership of Catarina I. Kiefe, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, evaluated a number of candidates with impressive qualifications, considering the needs of the medical school, the clinical system and the community; with the enthusiastic recommendation of the search committee, we are pleased to announce this appointment.”
A graduate of Harvard College and the SUNY-Buffalo School of Medicine, Lee completed residency at Children’s Hospital of Buffalo and a fellowship in pediatric endocrinology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Lee also serves as the co-director of clinical and translational research in the UMass Diabetes Center of Excellence. She was a fellow in the Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs Pediatric Leadership Development Program, and is a member of the National Scientific Advisory Council for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Lee has served in leadership roles in many professional organizations, including the Executive Council of the American Society of Andrology, the Pediatric Academic Societies Program Committee, the pediatric endocrinology subspecialty board of the American Board of Pediatrics and the Hood Medical Foundation Scientific Review Panel. She has been on the editorial boards of Endocrinology, Spermatogenesis, the Journal of Andrology andthe Journal of Cellular Physiology. Lee has also been medical director and a member of the board of trustees for the Barton Center for Diabetes Education since 2005.
An internationally recognized physician scientist, Lee has conducted pioneering research on Müllerian-inhibiting substance biology in gonadal disorders and sexual differentiation, and the regulation of Leydig cell development. She has also achieved recognition for her studies on the effects of environmental endocrine disruptors on growth, puberty and metabolic health, and is engaged in clinical trials and collaborative studies on beta cell preservation and improving diabetes management.
On the ‘Best Doctors in America’ list every year since 2005, Lee will be continuing a limited pediatric endocrine practice as a member of the Pediatric Endocrine Division at UMass Memorial.
