Finding Voice

How a UW College of Education alum is reshaping multilingual education by honoring language, identity and belonging.

On paper, Dr. Jamie Lee’s résumé reads like a steady ascent: degrees earned, programs launched, leadership roles assumed. But the throughline of her career, one that becomes clear when she speaks, is less about titles and more about voice: who has it, who is encouraged to use it, and how schools can either nurture or silence it.

Growing up as an immigrant student, Lee (BA, ’09, Early Childhood and Family Studies; MA, ’11, Teaching; EdD, ’24, Leadership for Learning) learned early that language and identity are inseparable. “Language was so tied to who I was,” she said. “When you’re placed into categories because of it, you carry this feeling that maybe you’re not quite enough yet.” Even as she advanced academically, earning her bachelor’s degree, then her master’s, then her doctorate, those doubts lingered. “I kept thinking, even after all that, maybe I’m still missing something.”

That experience shaped both her academic path and her professional mission.

Lee arrived at the University of Washington (UW) initially drawn to chemistry, a field she loved for its logic and clarity. “It didn’t require a lot of language,” she said. “You just needed to know how the components worked together.” But time spent in chemistry courses and later working in a pharmacy made her realize something was missing: connection. She was eager to work with people, not behind the scenes.

Her pivot coincided with a moment of transformation at UW itself. When the UW College of Education introduced its Early Childhood and Family Studies program, Lee joined its first cohort. Only nine students graduated that year. The small, pioneering program, and a study abroad experience in South Africa, opened her eyes to how education systems reflect values, power and access. “It changed how I thought about service,” she said. “About what education could look like.”

Lee went on to complete her master's in teaching at UW College of Education, overlapping it with her undergraduate work during the program’s final two-year format. The additional time mattered. “You could really absorb the learning,” she said, “and then build relationships and make sense of it all.”

Those relationships, and the ideas behind them, have stayed with her.

Today, Lee is an executive director of federal programs & student success in the Puyallup school district. She is a leader in multilingual education, advocating for programs that recognize bilingualism not as a deficit to overcome, but as an asset to celebrate. She’s quick to point out that these programs are often the first to be questioned when budgets tighten. “When things are good, bilingual education is considered innovative,” she said. “But when systems are under pressure, it’s often what gets pushed out.”

That reality is part of what motivates her to speak up.

Recently, Lee’s expertise has reached beyond Washington state. After conversations with representatives from the Korean Office of Education about expanding AP Korean language offerings, she was invited to present in Korea, sharing not just how Advanced Placement (AP)courses function, but why strong bilingual foundations must come first. “AP doesn’t just happen on its own,” she explained. “You can’t build it without years of investment in language and identity.”

The experience was unexpected and deeply personal. “That side of my identity had been pushed aside for so long,” she said. “To be in a space where it was centered and formally valued felt incredibly important.”

Her work continues close to home. In Puyallup, where Korean is among the top five languages spoken, Lee has helped expand access to dual-language and multilingual programming that centers not only language development but also culture, history, and belonging. Most recently, she has begun piloting the district’s first ASL Dual Language program, an initiative that reflects her commitment to reimagining language access through the lenses of inclusion, identity, and equity. The work is also deeply personal. When her daughters enrolled in a dual-language program, the impact became even more tangible. “Language has been such a crucial part of building my identity,” she said. “I knew it had to be part of my daughters’ too.”

For Lee, multilingual education is more than about instruction; it’s about framing one’s worldview. “Language and identity go together,” she said. “When kids see that it’s not just English, when they learn that accents don’t make you less than, it changes how they see themselves and others.”

It’s a philosophy rooted in lived experience, shaped at the University of Washington, developed through her community work, and carried forward through classrooms, districts, and international conversations. And while Lee may still resist framing her journey as a straight line, the impact is clear: students who once questioned whether they belonged are now being told, explicitly, that they do.