Originally published on July 03, 2017.
Dr. Lee Pace attended Southern Utah University due to the school’s financial support and close proximity to family. After his first semester, he knew he made the right choice and was extremely impressed with SUU’s pre-medical focus.
With the small class sizes and one-on-one attention, Lee quickly developed personal relationships with his professors in the College of Science and Engineering. As Lee worked toward a Chemistry / Pre-med degree, he felt support and guidance from all of his faculty.
“You come to SUU to learn in a supportive environment, not just to scoot by with an easy degree,” Lee said.
During his time on campus, Lee worked with Ty Redd, chemistry department chair, on an organic chemistry research project titled, “Asymmetric Dihydroxylation of Allenes.” Lee’s job was to run chemical reactions and then analyzed the experiment for purity, yield percentage and enantiomeric excess. The research was published in Tetrahedron Letters in 2004.
Lee contributes his critical thinking skills to his time working with Professor Redd. Lee learned how to move past the role of memorization and instead apply concepts to solve problems.
Once Lee graduated from SUU and started attending Boston University for med-school, he knew he could excel in his field. Graduating in the top five of his class, Lee earned impressive honors and recognition from med-school.
Lee has since completed a residency in orthopedic surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle, one of the best orthopedic surgery residency program in the Western United States. Lee then moved to a fellowship in pediatric orthopedics at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the University of Southern California, and a second fellowship at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital in pediatric and adult sports medicine.
For the last five years, Lee has worked at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and was an Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at USC's Keck School of Medicine. Lee was an assistant team physician for the LA Galaxy soccer team and was a Venue Medical Director for the Los Angeles 2015 World Special Olympics.
In August of 2017, Lee will start a new job in Connecticut. He will be an Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and part of Elite Sports Medicine at Connecticut Children's Medical Center.
Lee’s typical day is working as a specialist in treating sports injuries in youth athletes. He operate twice a week and see patients in clinic twice a week. While, one day a week will be dedicated to research.
According to Lee, there have been a multitude of things along the way that have helped get him to where he is now, but SUU will always be his beginning.
Learn more about SUU's Pre-Medical Program.
Tags: Alumni
