Kathryn Lee

Kathryn Lee was a political science professor for 38 years before retiring in 2022. She moved to Chestertown in July 2022 from Spokane, Washington and is professor emerita of political science at Whitworth University. She also taught at Eastern University in St. Davids, PA, and Seattle Pacific University. Her undergraduate degree is from Wake Forest and her Ph.D. is from Johns Hopkins. During graduate school, she would escape to the Eastern Shore. Her first experience with eating blue crabs was at Hopkins. In graduate school, her major subfield in political science was public law; however, over the decades, she taught various courses related to American political institutions and law. Along the way, she also earned a law degree at Temple, thinking she might leave teaching, but then decided teaching is what she genuinely loved. She had summer positions at the Department of Justice in the Equal Education Opportunities Section and the Executive Office for Immigration Review, in the San Diego immigration court. She also clerked for one year for the late Justice Charles Z. Smith of the Washington State Supreme Court. She taught Women in American Politics for many years and has a passionate interest in constitutional issues related to gender equality and women's representation on the bench, especially in the U. S. Supreme Court. Kathryn's father was an economics professor and served in the Nixon and Ford administrations, so she comes by her interest in things political honestly.