Leana Wen Biography
Leana Wen is a CNN medical analyst and a Chinese-born physician who writes op-ed articles for The Washington Post. She is a practicing physician, a former Baltimore City Health Commissioner, and the author of When Doctors Don’t Listen: How to Prevent Misdiagnoses and Uncomfortable Tests.
How old is Leana Wen? – Age
Leana is 38 years old as of 27 January 2021. She was born in 1983 in, Shanghai, China.
Leana Wen Family – Parents and Sister
She is the daughter of Xiaolu Wen of Los Angeles and the late Sandy Ying Zhang. Wen moved to the United States with her parents when she was eight years old, and her English name was Leana Sheryle Wen at the time. The Wen family was given political asylum and moved to Compton and East Los Angeles in Southern California. Wen and her family became citizens of the United States in 2003. Her mother worked as a hotel room cleaner and a video store clerk before dying of breast cancer in 2010. Her father worked as a dishwasher and distributed newspapers before becoming the technology manager for The Chinese Daily News in Los Angeles. She has a sister who is working as a teacher.
Leana Wen Education
Wen began attending California State University, Los Angeles’ Early Entrance Program (EEP) at the age of 13 and graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry at the age of 18 in 2001. She has a Doctor of Medicine from Washington University School of Medicine and two master’s degrees from Merton College, Oxford, England, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, one in Economic and Social History and the other in Modern Chinese Studies. During her time in England, she met her future husband, Sebastian Walker.
Wen took a year off from medical school in 2005 to serve as the national president of the American Medical Student Association, where she led efforts to expand healthcare access, eliminate health inequalities, and tackle conflicts of interest between physicians and pharmaceutical firms, who are infamous for pressuring doctors with enticing sales representatives and free gifts. Wen got involved in US and international health policy during medical school, working as a World Health Organization fellow in Geneva, Switzerland, and a US Department of Defense fellow in Rwanda. Her appointment to the Council on Graduate Medical Education by the US Secretary of Health and Human Services also allowed her to advise the US Congress on physician workforce and medical education.
Who is Dr. Leana Wen Husband?
She married her husband Sebastian Neil Walker on February 9, 2012, at Boston City Hall. Their marriage was officiated by Maureen E. Feeney. Her husband works in London as an information technology consultant for financial firms. He received his bachelor’s degree from Johannesburg’s University of Witwatersrand. He is the son of Johannesburg’s Veronica S. Walker and the late Neil P. Walker. In Johannesburg, the bridegroom’s mother serves as a property manager. His father was a high school mathematics teacher there until he retired.
Who is your doctor’s campaign? – Who’s My Doctor
Dr. Leana, the director of patient-centered care research at George Washington University, recently launched “Who’s My Doctor,” a website where doctors can sign a Total Transparency Manifesto and reveal what outside support they get, what percentage of their pay comes from where, and, if they want to, information about their families, political affiliation, and philosophy of practice. A woman might want to know how her doctor feels about contraception, abortion, or early breast cancer tests, for example. Parents should be curious about a doctor’s opinion on regular vaccination. They will also see which drug firms the doctor is associated with if any.
Leana Wen Career
Wen completed an internship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General), as well as a clinical fellowship at Harvard Medical School in Boston, after graduating from medical school. She is an emergency medicine specialist with board certification. She married Sebastian Neil Walker, a South African native, in February 2012 and began working in emergency medicine at BWH and Mass General before moving to the GW ER in Washington, DC, where she became a professor of emergency and health policy and the Director of Patient-Centered Care Studies.
She worked as a consultant for the Brookings Institution and the China Medical Board, and she studied international health systems in South Africa, Slovenia, Nigeria, Singapore, and China. Wen served as the president of Planned Parenthood to improve non-abortion programs such as maternal health and mental health, as well as to rebrand the company from an abortion-rights advocate to a comprehensive women’s health organization that supports women and families. She opened up about her own struggles with infertility as a cervical cancer survivor, as well as a miscarriage she suffered while in the role.
TIME named Wen one of the 100 Most Powerful People in the World in 2019. She was forced out of her position as president of Planned Parenthood in July 2019 due to a disagreement about political disagreements and the organization’s direction. “I am 8 months pregnant,” Wen declared on February 24, 2020. She is pro-choice and pro-abortion.