Carolee Lee

Carolee Lee is an innovative trailblazer dedicated to transforming the health of women. In 2020, she founded WHAM (Women’s Health Access Matters), a non-profit organization dedicated to stimulating research and investment in women’s health and implementing strategies to eliminate the inequities and bias in research and enterprise, while accelerating scientific discovery and economic impact. Lee assembled a board of 25 leading businesswomen to launch this initiative and commissioned the Rand Corporation to create The WHAM Report, which quantified the economic benefits of investing in woman’s health research.

As a well-recognized, highly respected leader, Lee was named to TIME100’s Most Influential People in Global Health. She has shifted the dialogue on women’s health by looking at the ethics, empirical data and economic impact of women’s health while coalescing others to spearhead effective change.

Prior to founding WHAM, as a creative force and visionary leader in the fashion world, Lee built a preeminent global brand and successfully sold it to Luxottica in 2001.

Lee has served on numerous public and private boards and currently serves on the boards of: The La Jolla Institute for Immunology; The Women’s Health Advisory Board, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; and The Women’s Leadership Board at The John F. Kennedy School of Government. She is a past president of the Committee of 200 and served as the Chair of its Foundation Board. She also was a director on the board of DSW, Inc., the Museum of Arts and Design, NY, and The Breast Cancer Research Foundation for twenty years.

Throughout her career, Lee has embraced mentoring and leadership roles in many diverse business organizations and is active in numerous civic, philanthropic and educational organizations.