Psychiatrist Left Her Country But Not Her Countrymen

Once in Ohio, Le gradually learned to speak English and became self-sufficient. She found work as a case manager and, after moving to California with her family, earned her master's degree in clinical science at San Francisco State University. At that point she decided to resume her goal of becoming a doctor. She graduated from medical school at the American University of the Caribbean after completing a yearlong clerkship in Israel.

Once back in California, Le completed her psychiatry residency at St. Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco in 1990. She established a private practice and also began working part time at a community mental health clinic, Family and Children Services in San Jose, where she continues to work with patients from diverse cultural backgrounds, including those from Cambodia and Vietnam. She noted that stigma regarding mental illness and its treatment was especially pronounced among her Vietnamese patients, leading her to focus on treating their physical symptoms—which were often manifestations of mental health problems. She soon became a trusted practitioner in San Jose's Vietnamese community, but her reach was local. That was about to change.

In 1986 Le was invited to be a guest speaker on a Vietnamese-language program on a San Jose radio station. She addressed relationship issues with her audience and became so popular on-air that she soon had her own weekly show, which was called “Hanh Trang Vao Doi,” which in English translates as “Packed for Life.” The topics Le covered included coping with loss, raising children, handling relationships at home and at work, and being a good partner, parent, and friend.

The station reached Vietnamese communities throughout the Bay area and California's central coast, but when her show began airing on satellite radio, Le's voice could be heard as far away as Canada and Europe on a show called “Hanh Phuc Gia Dinh,” or “Family Happiness,” which featured questions from callers about issues relating to the family.

In 2006 Le began contributing to a program on yet another satellite-radio show, this time targeting Vietnamese audiences living in Australia. The show, “Love's Paths,” centers on relationship issues and hits the airwaves on Friday afternoons.

In addition, Le can be seen on the Web site Vietnamdaily.com, where she takes questions that are e-mailed to her cohost and facilitator during half-hour show slots once a week. While her advice reaches the far corners of the world, Le herself sits on the phone in her office for her satellite-radio shows and in a San Jose studio for the Internet show.

She emphasized that she enjoys the opportunity to take questions from callers about the problems they experience and often uses her expertise and influence to educate and combat the stigma that is so common among her Vietnamese audiences about mental illness and treatment. She has also written several books based on her radio and Internet shows.

Of all her accomplishments, however, Le said that she is most proud of her children. Her daughter has recently been accepted to a psychiatry residency program at the University of California, San Francisco, and her son is a third-year medical student at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.

Le is also married to a psychiatrist—Francis Lu, M.D., who last year took a new position at the University of California, Davis, as the Luke and Grace Kim Endowed Professor in Cultural Psychiatry, director of the cultural psychiatry program, and associate director of the general psychiatry residency training program.

Le's daughter Uyen-Khanh Quang-Dang told Psychiatric News that she believes that Le and Lu are a “good team” because they take different approaches to psychiatry. Lu takes an “academic and organizational” approach to the field with his administrative and teaching position, while her mother maintains a “grass-roots” approach with her work with patients and advice to the public. “My mother keeps her finger on the pulse of the Vietnamese community,” she added.