Sharon Dian Lee, M.D., is Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Kansas and the founder and director of Southwest Boulevard Family Health Care. She holds the dual role of Community Electives Coordinator and HIV and Palliative Care Consultant at the University of Kansas Medical Center Department of Family Medicine. In 1989 she formed the Kansas City HIV Women's Coalition, as well as the Permanency Planning Project of Kansas City, Kan., which, since 1993, has sought to provide services and assistance to AIDS orphans. Dr. Lee also serves on the board of directors of the Black Health Care Coalition, which addresses the health and wellness needs of HIV-positive minorities in the Kansas City area.

Dr. Lee has been intimately involved in HIV/AIDS research and patient care since the early years of the epidemic in the U.S. She has served as medical director of a number of Kansas City-area HIV clinics over the past 20 years, and was a founding member of the Kansas City AIDS Research Consortium, which operated from 1988 to 1995. She has won numerous honors for her work, including the Caring Physician's Award in 1999 and the Kansas City, Kansas African-American Unsung Hero in Health Services Award in 1993.

Dr. Lee earned her medical degree at the University of Kansas in 1982, and completed her residency in family practice at the University of Missouri's Truman Medical Center in 1987. She has held her assistant professorship at the University of Kansas since 1987.

Support for Dr. Lee's research has been provided by Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Abbott Laboratories, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co., Ortho Biotech Products, L.P., Roche and Solvay.