A Lifetime of Difference

Linda Lee, DrPH ’05, will never forget her father’s response when she first told him of her plans to become an industrial hygienist.

“He asked me if that meant cleaning bathrooms in a factory,” Linda recalls. “Not many people knew what it actually involved.”

A former factory worker, Linda’s future came into focus in college during a co-op experience in industrial hygiene, which focuses on protecting the health and safety of workers. Her mentor gave her a book about workers who died on the job from health hazards.

“It really got me to thinking, because I had worked on a factory line with soldering wires, which can emit toxic fumes,” she says. “I never appreciated all of the dangers that come with industrial work.”

More than four decades later, Linda knows quite a bit about danger. In a whirlwind professional and academic career, she has gained sought-after expertise in industrial hygiene, environmental health and safety, public health, and facilities management. She has also served in high-level executive roles preventing biological and chemical hazards, earned three graduate degrees, and launched her own consulting business.

“All of my roles—starting in industrial hygiene and then moving more into the health field—have come together and given me a broad understanding of how the pieces fit together to make a healthy work environment,” says Linda, who has authored three books published by the American Hospital Association along with numerous articles in scientific journals.

Her journey with UTHealth Houston began in 1999, when The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center recruited her as the director of environmental health and safety and ultimately its new Associate Vice President of Facilities Administration and Campus Operations. The search committee included Robert Emery, DrPH, Vice President of Safety, Health, Environment, and Risk Management at UTHealth Houston.

Their careers shared many similarities, and Emery suggested Linda also earn a doctorate at UTHealth School of Public Health. She took his advice and completed a DrPH in 2005 from the school’s Southwest Center for Occupational and Environmental Health.

“I already had a successful career at that point, so I saw it as an opportunity for personal development,” Linda says. “I valued having so many incredibly smart, knowledgeable people around me in the program, who were willing to help me move to the next level in my expertise.”

George P. Delclos, Marcus M. Key, MD – Shell Occupational and Environmental Health Endowed Chair and Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics, and Environmental Sciences, served as Lee’s mentor during her dissertation. Not only did she appreciate his classes, but she felt he believed deeply in his students and their success.

“When you have people who don’t see you as anything but successful, it’s hard to not live up to that expectation,” she says.

Linda’s ties to the university extended to her endocrinologist, Philip R. Orlander, MD, Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. Linda has lived with diabetes and hypothyroidism from childhood, and she has grown to value Orlander’s expertise, genuine concern for her well-being, and commitment to creating a treatment plan that works with her lifestyle.

“I don’t feel like there are a lot of doctors like him around,” she says. “I probably owe the fact that I’m doing so well to him.”

With gratitude for her relationships with Delclos and Orlander, Linda made an estate commitment to establish the Linda D. Lee, DrPH, Professorship and the Linda D. Lee, DrPH, Fellowship at UTHealth Houston. The Lee Professorship will support the Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics, and Environmental Sciences at the School of Public Health, while the Lee Fellowship will support fellows in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism within the Department of Internal Medicine at McGovern Medical School.

“These two people had big impacts on my life,” Linda says. “I feel like my whole life has been blessed, so I wanted to be able to give back.”

In addition to honoring Orlander and Delclos, Linda hopes that by strengthening educational resources at both schools, her estate commitment will help train the future experts who will be needed in the years to come.

“Having people who dedicate their careers to educating that next generation of health professionals is incredibly important,” she says. “It takes all of us to support that.”