The death of a newborn in Tibet crystallized CC Lee’s vision of her future.

As a young pediatrician with work experience in developing countries, Lee had witnessed the consequences of poverty and lack of health services: acute diarrheal diseases, pneumonia, malnutrition and chronic illness. But one experience was different. Working with an NGO in Tibet’s Surmang Valley, Lee found herself at the home of a woman whose baby had just died of birth asphyxia. If she had arrived minutes earlier, she likely could have saved the infant with neonatal resuscitation. Deeply affected by the mother’s “anguish, agony and strength,” Lee committed herself to help train a network of skilled birth attendants in the Surmang Valley to manage common health problems during pregnancy and delivery, including birth asphyxia. “This clinical perspective convinced me that public health is the foundation for improving child health in the developing world,” says Lee.