Dr Youngmee Jee

Dr Youngmee Jee served as Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) from December 2022 to July 2025 where she led national, regional and global initiatives to strengthen health security. She established the Global Health Security Coordination Office (GHSCO), advanced official development assistance (ODA) activities and built strategic partnerships with international organizations including WHO, ECDC, Africia CDC, ASEAN and CEPI as well as key public health agencies such as UK Health Security Agency, US CDC and Singapore Communicable Disease Agency.

Prior to this position, Dr Jee was Chief Executive Officer of Institut Pasteur Korea (2021–2022) and she also held senior leadership roles in KCDC as the Director-General of the Center for Infectious Disease Research (2017–2019) and the Center for immunology and pathology (2014–2017).

From 2007 to 2014, Dr Jee worked for the Expanded Programme on Immunization in the WHO Western Pacific Region as regional coordinator after 10 years of career as public health expert at the National Institute of Health in Republic of Korea.

Dr Jee has played critical roles in major public health emergencies, During the MERS-CoV outbreak in 2015, Dr Jee was a member of the WHO-Korea Joint Mission on MERS-CoV Outbreak in the Republic of Korea, and in 2017 and 2025 was assigned the role of the National Lead for the WHO IHR Joint External Evaluation (JEE) of the Republic of Korea’s Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response.

Dr Jee has expert knowledge in infectious diseases and served on various WHO advisory boards, including the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization, the WHO International Health Regulation Emergency Committee on COVID-19, the WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Blueprint on Research and Development Preparedness for Epidemics. She also served as a member of Korea National Immunization Technical Advisory Group, Board of Trustees member of the International Vaccine Institute and Chairperson of the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases.

Dr Jee graduated from the Seoul National University Medical School and has a PhD in Virology from the University of London. In recognition of her service, she received the President Medal of Distinguished Service in 2017.