KLee

About Kien Lee

Kien S. Lee, Ph.D., Vice President of Consulting, has expertise in promoting equity, inclusion, and cultural competency for health, food security, civic engagement, and leadership development. Current evaluations include those with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the Colorado Trust, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Strategic Factors for Strengthening Our Communities: The Five C’s Community, Connections, Control, Cash, & Collective Action

By |2025-08-25T10:54:58-04:00February 18, 2022|Uncategorized|

The current health, social justice, violence, and environmental crises call for greater attention to strengthening our communities to care for their members and to take collective action to address the root causes of disadvantage, marginalization, and stress. Strengthening communities, especially those historically disadvantaged, will have the greatest and broadest impact on the well-being of individuals, families, and communities. Social and medical research over the past 150 years has shown that…

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The Role Local School Wellness Councils Play in Promoting Health in Schools

By |2025-08-25T10:23:16-04:00April 26, 2021|Uncategorized|

Healthier students tend to be stronger learners (Busch et al., 2014; Basch, 2011). Student health is related to grades, school attendance, and graduation rates. However, one in three children is overweight or obese (Alliance for Healthier Generation, n.d.). In addition to the connection to poorer education outcomes, childhood obesity is linked to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other health issues in adulthood. Given the long-term educational and health consequences of unhealthy…

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Advancing Oral Health Equity: Oral Health as Whole Health

By |2025-08-25T11:16:12-04:00March 3, 2021|Uncategorized|

Oral health is an important but often overlooked component of health and well-being. It affects people's quality of life and functioning - one's ability to eat, speak, learn, work, sleep, and socialize with others. Black, Latinx, Native American, poor White, and other marginalized communities are disproportionately impacted by the lack of adequate dental care, barriers to receiving care, and consequent negative health outcomes. This article provides a brief overview on…

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Health Equity—More than Equal Access

By |2025-08-25T11:17:08-04:00January 15, 2021|Uncategorized|

Much attention has focused on reaching, educating, and enrolling uninsured people in health coverage programs. Getting people health coverage is one way to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health, but it does not achieve health equity-going beyond eliminating differences among groups of people and attaining the highest level of health for everyone. Healthcare coverage alone will not lead to better health if people don't know how to use their…

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Community Science in Action: Establishing Baltimore’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund

By |2025-08-25T11:17:46-04:00May 4, 2020|Uncategorized|

Community Science, in addition to our consultation, capacity building, and evaluation services, also works on local issues of national importance. There is an affordable housing crisis in Baltimore City, as in all American cities. Over half (53%) of city renters and 40 percent of homeowners pay more than one-third of their income in housing, putting them at risk for housing instability and even homelessness. In Baltimore on any given night,…

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Measuring the Effect of Habitat for Humanity’s Quality-of-Life Approach on Neighborhoods

By |2025-08-25T13:40:10-04:00April 15, 2019|News & Media|

Community Science has worked closely with Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) to support the expansion of its neighborhood revitalization strategy and to deepen the field's understanding of best practices for improving neighborhood quality of life. This work builds on HFHI's previous investment in developing and refining its model for neighborhood revitalization, the Quality of Life Framework (QLF). To support HFHI's learning, Community Science is conducting a five-year outcomes and implementation…

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