Melissa Lee

Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee is the inaugural CEO of the Chinese Canadian Museum, where she has led the institution from its founding to national and international recognition, including the Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Museums. Born in Vancouver, she brings both lived experience and scholarly depth to her leadership. Trained as a literary and visual culture theorist (Lancaster, Canterbury, and McGill Universities), she was formerly on faculty at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and has held senior roles at the Vancouver Art Gallery and Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage & Arts. A mother of two daughters, Melissa is deeply invested in arts and culture as spaces of intergenerational belonging, memory, and civic imagination.