Name: Shelley Lee, DO
Medical school attended: Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Location of your residency/fellowship training:
- Neurology residency at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
- Epilepsy fellowship at Michigan State University/Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
What residency/fellowship program at UNMC are you serving as program director for?
Epilepsy fellowship.
Number of trainees:
We currently have one fellow (one-year fellowship).
How long have you been the program director?
I took on the PD role in July 2023.
What made you choose to become the program director?
I became interested in medical education early on in my training, and I knew I wanted to pursue a career in academic medicine. I joined UNMC as a faculty member in 2022, and shortly after, I served as the associate PD for the fellowship. I truly enjoyed being a part of a new and developing fellowship, and it was a natural transition for me when the opportunity arose.
What challenges do you foresee in graduate medical education in the future?
One unique challenge that we are facing within the subspecialty of epilepsy is the transition to a formal match process for our incoming fellows. As a relatively new program, it can be challenging to recruit fellows unfamiliar with our location or UNMC. However, I am confident that as we continue to grow, more prospective applicants will find in UNMC a top-tier center for education with a collegial and warm environment.
What are the strengths of your training program?
One of the greatest strengths of the program is our teaching faculty. We are fortunate to have an incredible group of enthusiastic and dedicated teachers with different training backgrounds who ensure a collaborative training atmosphere. As a Level 4 Epilepsy Center, fellows get broad and multidisciplinary exposure to patients with intractable epilepsy. By the end of training, fellows become confident in neurodiagnostic monitoring and management of epilepsy using both medical and surgical techniques. As a new and small program, we also have the ability to tailor training to the fellow’s interests and future career goals.
List some accomplishments that you are proud of:
- Growing the epilepsy fellowship and currently training our third fantastic epilepsy fellow.
- Developing a competitive fellowship with good medical and surgical exposure for our trainees.
- Working in a collegiate environment that fosters growth and learning for faculty and trainees.
Tell us three things about you that others may not know:
- I was asked this question when I started as a faculty member at UNMC a little over a year ago. I said I was learning the piano, but it didn’t go very well.
- I grew up in Michigan playing volleyball and have quickly embraced the volleyball obsession here in Nebraska.
- If I weren’t a physician, I would be a meteorologist.