She co-founded AZ Wordsmith, a dynamic organization dedicated to creative expression and human connection through writing and storytelling. Alongside fellow writers, she helped launch a popular monthly prose open mic and a storytelling event where people step onto the stage and share their true, personal stories before a live audience.

Beyond the world of words, Lee has been a tireless advocate for those facing rare and life-threatening illnesses. As a founding member of the National Neutropenia Network (NNN), she spent a decade building a lifeline for patients and families, managing the organization, producing a newsletter that reached thousands, and establishing a groundbreaking conference where patients could connect with the world’s leading bone marrow failure specialists. She also served for ten years as the patient representative on the Severe Chronic Neutropenia International Registry, ensuring that those living with this rare disease had a voice in the medical community.

Through it all, Lee wrestled with a story she knew had to be told—the story her daughter, Leta, did not live long enough to write herself. Over the years, she attempted draft after draft, but the final chapters felt impossible to put into words. Then, one morning, something shifted. She woke up with a quiet, profound certainty: she was ready. Ready to revisit the hardest days of her life. Ready to bring Leta’s story to the world.

Lee won first place in Professional Writers of Prescott’s contest for her personal essay, No Sad Faces.

Lee’s essay, A Tender Lullaby, was selected to be read on NPR’s This I Believe program and was published in the essay collection This I Believe: On Love.