Anne CC Lee is the Levinger Family Professor of Pediatrics at Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Founding Director of the Brown Alliance for Infant and Maternal Health Research.  Dr. Lee and her research group design, evaluate, and implement interventions to reduce mortality and optimize the health of mothers, newborns, and children globally. She has conducted epidemiologic studies and clinical trials in Asia and Africa for two decades, primarily in China, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia.

Dr. Lee’s current research program focuses on: 1) perinatal epidemiology, 2) prenatal interventions to prevent adverse birth outcomes and optimize child development, and 3) innovation in tools and technology for maternal-neonatal care.  As a member of the Child Health Epidemiology Reference Group neonatal working group, she led the first global estimates of the burden of fetal growth restriction, neonatal encephalopathy, and childhood impairment related to neonatal conditions. These estimates were included in the UNICEF-World Health Organization “Every Newborn Action Plan,” endorsed by the World Health Assembly. Dr. Lee has led large scale clinical trials of multi-sectoral prenatal interventions targeting maternal nutrition and infections to prevent preterm birth and low birth weight in Ethiopia and Bangladesh.  Her research examines the role of prenatal nutrients and inflammation on health and development through the life course.  Dr. Lee is also dedicated to developing innovative tools for newborn care in low-resource settings.  She invented the Bili-ruler, a non-invasive icterometer used to screen for newborn jaundice in settings without laboratory capacity.  Dr. Lee is engaged in the translation of evidence to policy, and collaborates with the WHO Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health, where she has contributed to evidence synthesis and the development of guidelines for the management of neonatal sepsis and preterm infants. She has been recognized by the WHO Department of Child and Adolescent Health, and served on committees for the Eunice Kennedy Shriver NICHD and National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.