Against the odds: One woman’s mission to empower future diabetes specialists

Diagnosed with diabetes at 15 years old, Linda Lee, DrPH, began injecting herself with insulin not long afterward. Three years later, her family practice doctor in rural Indiana gave her a stark prognosis.

“He told me I would have about 20 good years,’’ Linda recalls. “He said to enjoy them because, after that, the disease can have devastating effects.”

At that time, in the early 1970s, research and care for insulin-dependent diabetes was still in its early stages. Linda remembers a friend and colleague who was also diagnosed at age 15 with insulin-dependent diabetes and died at age 35.

“She hit the 20-year mark and passed away,” Linda says. “But I always believed there had to be a better way.”

In the more than five decades since, Linda has found that better way, aggressively managing her health conditions—which include diabetes and hypothyroidism—in partnership with expert physicians, all while serving in high-level executive roles, earning three graduate degrees, and launching her own consulting business.

She has built an especially close bond with endocrinologist Philip Orlander, MD, who serves as Director and Professor of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism in the Department of Internal Medicine at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. He also holds the Edward Randall, III Chair in Internal Medicine.

Linda began seeing Orlander for care in 2002 after moving to Houston to work for The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where she served as Director of Environmental Health and Safety and later as Associate Vice President of Facilities Administration and Campus Operations. She found Orlander combined an in-depth understanding of diabetes technology, such as insulin pumps, with a cooperative, positive approach to treatment.   

“Good physicians can connect with patients who are motivated to tackle the disease,” says Linda, who earned a doctorate at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health in 2005. “Dr. Orlander always reminds me that we are partners in this journey. I am responsible for my health, but he keeps me on that path.”

Linda’s experience with doctors had not always been that way. When she was first diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (which shortly became type 1) her family doctor in rural Indiana told her to inject herself with an increasing dose of insulin every day until she had low blood sugar—then stay at that dose and treat the low blood sugar.

“As a teenager, I thought that was just the way it went,” Linda says. “As an adult, I really appreciate doctors who have more expertise in this area.”

Ensuring patients have well-trained endocrinologists available has become one of her major goals. Grateful for the care she has received from Orlander, she decided to establish the Linda D. Lee, DrPH, Resident and Fellow Support Endowment. The fund will provide resources for residents and fellows in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism.

“We’re not going to magically have good doctors,” she says. “If we want good doctors, we have to provide the resources for it to happen.”

“I am honored that Linda has entrusted me with her care and grateful for her generous support of the division,” Orlander says. “Her gift will make a meaningful difference in the education of our residents and fellows.”

Lee credits Orlander as the inspiration behind her gift, changing her life through his practice of medicine.   

“That’s really what a physician should be to a patient who has a chronic illness,” she says. “Every day that he walks the planet, he is impacting my life.”