ceelee (Dr. Cheong Eun Esther Lee)

Dentist by trade. Writer, illustrator, smile-maker by passion.

That's me. Ceelee. Formerly a K-5 elementary school teacher who made a drastic career change after living in Morocco for a year. I was given a once in a lifetime opportunity to help open a school in Fez, Morocco. So I packed my bags, left a great teaching job in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and got on a plane not knowing what to expect. All I can say is, it was life changing. We were a team of 6 American teachers with only a building. That was it. No books, no supplies, no curriculum. With the little that we had, we had to be creative. REALLY creative. We wrote our own curriculum, wrote our own songs and books, and became expert dumpster divers looking for cans, yogurt cups, anything to recycle into fun art projects for kids. Today, this school has expanded to a high school and the students have become proud leaders in their community in both Morocco and abroad. I am so proud to have been part of this school's legacy. 

So how did I go from teaching to dentistry? Well, for one thing, most of my students had poor oral hygiene and LOTS of cavities.  Many of the kids had closed-lip smiles trying to hide this fact. Access to dental care was little to none. The local "dentist" was a guy with no formal training who just happened across some extraction tools and made a living seeing people for dental emergencies. Scary. I know. I met some ex-pats who were dentists working with Operation Smile fixing cleft-palate patients in the city slums. I met another team of dentists and hygienists promoting oral health care to the Berbers in the mountains. They sparked an interest that grew into a passion of wanting to restore smiles not just through teaching, but through necessary and practical needs such as oral health care. I wanted to become a dentist. 

So here I am, finally a dentist and practicing my trade, but still not fully satisfied. I took this unrest and channeled it into my hobby of writing, illustrating, and making people laugh. My pediatric patients call me Dr. Silly. My adult patients call me Crazy Dr. Lee. I restore their teeth and make sure they walk out with a smile both physically and emotionally. That's me. Ceelee. A silly, crazy, dentist-former teacher with a passion to make smiles and share them with the rest of the world. 

Info

Work: Dentist for Morris Heights Health Center

Volunteer: Brooklyn Hospital Children's Health Center-Reach Out and Read

Artistic Editor: Architect Nai Wong 

Editor: Jisoo Lee

ceelee publishing
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Special shout out to the following organizations: