Dr. Ying-Yuan Lee, alumnus of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, has been named Minister of the Environmental Protection Administration of Taiwan.

[Photo: Dr. Ying-Yuan Lee (Photo courtesy of Minizest/Wikimedia)]

Dr. Lee previously held a number of government positions in the Republic of China, including member of the National Parliament, Minister of the Council of Labor Affairs, Secretary-General of the executive branch and Secretary-General of the Democratic Progressive Party.

He yielded a senate seat in the government to serve in the challenging role of EPA minister at a historic time in Taiwan’s democracy.

On May 20, Taiwan inaugurated Dr. Ing-wen Tsai, the country’s first woman president. Under her administration, the EPA is being expanded to a department-level ministry and will include oversight of natural resources. Dr. Tsai’s newly elected vice president, Dr. Chien-Jen Chen, who earned a doctorate in epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, is also a public health practitioner.

Dr. Lee earned a doctorate in health economics from the UNC Gillings School’s department of health policy and management in 1988. His wife, Dr. Yueh-Guey Huang, also a Gillings School graduate, earned a Doctor of Public Health degree in health policy and management in 1987.

Read more: https://sph.unc.edu/sph-news/gillings-school-alumnus-to-serve-as-taiwans-epa-director/