Hee Yun Lee, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Social Work, has been named the 2010-2011 Fesler-Lampert Chair in Aging Studies at the University of Minnesota Center on Aging.
The endowed chair funds researchers and scholars who want to pursue projects that will further knowledge and understanding about aging and its effects on people. Dr. Lee has been studying aging for more than 20 years, focusing on the quality of life and care among elderly immigrants and refugees. Holding the chair will give her the opportunity to pursue a community-based participatory research project that will examine health literacy—specifically cancer literacy and pertinent screening behaviors—among elders in the Hmong community in the Twin Cities area.
The long-term goal of the project is to create effective, culturally competent, and community-based interventions that increase cancer screening and ultimately improve the health and well-being of elder Hmong refugees. The chair was created in 1999 by the Center on Aging with support from the University of Minnesota Graduate School and the generosity of David and Elizabeth Fesler.