Lee grew up in Saint Paul, Minnesota in a traditional Hmong American household. Her first experience into the great outdoors was at the age of thirteen through YMCA Camp Menogyn. She didn’t find the experience worthwhile and a bit silly — portaging, wearing the same clothes over and over again, enduring mosquito bites, and spending hours paddling? It was through the encouragement of her mentor that she kept returning to the Camp Menogyn because he insisted that being the wilderness would change her life one day. It galls her to admit it, but he was right. She completed Camp Menogyn’s camper stages with a 55-day long trip in the Canadian tundra where she paddled the Kazan and Kunwak rivers with Ann Raiho, Natalie Warren, Rachel Hedlund, and a few other amazing women. In 2013, she was part of a 11-person crew that paddled over 2,300 miles of the Mississippi River from its headwater to New Orleans. In 2014, she paddled the Illinois River to help lead an adventure-learning curriculum from its headwater to the confluence of the Mississippi River. She currently resides in New York City as a Research Assistant for a telehealth company.