Building Healthy Communities Collaborative

Dr. Karen Lee is the Senior Advisor to the Built Environment & Healthy Housing Program at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and Adjunct Professor at the schools of Public Health at the University of Toronto and the University of Alberta. Dr. Lee has been the lead for the NYC Health Dept in its work with 12 city agencies including the NYC Departments of Design & Construction, Transportation, and City Planning, and non-government partners, in the development of the award-winning Active Design Guidelines, published in January 2010. She and her staff at the NYC Health Dept work with the American Institute Architects New York Chapter to organize the annual Fit City conferences since 2006. Since the publication of the Active Design Guidelines, Dr. Lee’s team has developed trainings on Active Design, and has worked with city agencies and private sector partners on developing and implementing Active Design policies and practices in NYC and 15 other U.S. cities. Dr. Lee is also co-author on the recently released publications Active Design Supplement: Promoting Safety, and Active Design: Affordable Designs for Affordable Housing presenting low-cost and cost-neutral Active Design strategies to address the epidemics of obesity and related chronic diseases. Dr. Lee also currently consults to and advises cities and organizations in Canada, Australia, Asia and Europe as well as the World Health Organization on issues related to the built environment and chronic diseases. Before coming to NYC, Dr. Lee was with the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) where she worked in the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity at the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.