Kwan Kew Lai met her first Punjabi woman doctor while lying in a hospital bed at the age of fourteen. Watching the woman walk away down the hall, Kwan Kew was convinced she could, and would, carve out her own destiny.
Originally from Penang, Malaysia, Kwan Kew Lai received a full scholarship from Wellesley College. She is a Harvard Medical Faculty Physician. In 2005, she left academia to dedicate time to humanitarian work; in HIV/AIDS in Africa, and she provides disaster relief all over the world, such as during the Ebola outbreak, the Syrian Rohingya refugee crises, and the COVID-19 pandemic in New York and the Navajo Nation. Her debut, Lest We Forget: A Doctor's Experience with Life and Death During the Ebola Outbreak, chronicles her time in Liberia and Sierra Leone caring for Ebola patients. Into Africa, Out of Academia: A Doctor's Memoir came out October, 2020. Visit: kwankewlai.com
