Lee-Lee Ellis
“Anything we can do to remove those blinders and try to just, at the very least, expose ourselves to the other things out there I think can be really informative in deciding what we’re most passionate about and what we want to pursue.”
Bloomberg School of Public Health
Health Policy and Bioethics, PhD 2015
Director, Health Care at Arnold Ventures
Lee-Lee‘s Podcast Episode
In this episode, we discuss how Lee-Lee’s undergraduate interest in both medicine and philosophy eventually led her to pursue a PhD in health policy and bioethics, what prompted her to transition from a research role to working in health policy and advocacy, and her take on the importance of networking and getting real-world work experience to help discover your passion and decide what career path is right for you.
Learn More About Lee-Lee‘s Story
This image is one of dozens of similar photos I have taken on my phone over the last decade living in our nation’s capital. I took this one while on a late afternoon run through Capitol Hill back in 2013, shortly after moving from Baltimore to Washington, DC. And even now, ten years later and despite so much political divisiveness in our country right now, I still feel a sense of awe whenever I catch a glimpse of the U.S. Capitol and think about what it represents to all of us. I feel incredibly grateful to work in a field where I have the opportunity to help shape federal policy. For policy wonks like me, Washington, D.C. is an exciting place to live.
This image is a picture of some cookies branded with Arnold Ventures’ logo: AV. Arnold Ventures is a policy-oriented philanthropy dedicated to tackling some of our nation’s most challenging problems from criminal justice to health care costs, and it is privilege to work here. I lead AV’s work on health care payment reform and Medicare sustainability. My days often involve a mix of connecting with current and potential grantees to hear about their work, providing technical assistance to policymakers to help influence evidence-based policy, and developing strategies to drive meaningful reforms to lower health care costs. I find my work both rewarding and challenging. I am surrounded by deeply thoughtful and dedicated people who also bring a lot of levity and joy to this work, and all of our efforts are made possible by the organization’s founders, Laura and John Arnold, who have committed to giving away their wealth to create lasting policy changes that improve people’s lives. Their decision to invest philanthropic dollars to solve such complex problems is inspirational.
