Dr. Lesley Fein - Biography

Lesley Fein grew up in South Africa where she obtained her Bachelor of Science with Honors degree. She started medical school at the University of Witwatersrand and then moved to the United States in 1977. While in South Africa she was one of five students at the University who started a clinic for migrant farm laborers who had moved to South Africa from other african countries looking for work. By the time she left the country, the clinic had 10,000 registered patients, and is now an official program affiliated with the medical school.

Dr. Fein holds both an MD (1981-George Washington University Medical School) and an MPH (1979-Columbia University, NY). Additionally, she is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, following a three year residency program at Mt. Sinai Hospital in NYC (1984) and completed her Fellowship in Rheumatology at New York University (1986). She has been in practice since 1986 and has taught Epidemiology to medical and public health students at Columbia University and Mt. Sinai Hospital, NY. She has also taught General Medicine at Mt. Sinai and NYU.

Dr. Fein has served on several committees, inclusive of S296 under Senator Bennet (Majority Leader of NJ Senate) regarding Lyme disease, the National Health Legislation Task Force, and an Advisor to the Lyme Disease Foundation. She is both an experienced researcher, through grants from Hoechst labs as well as Pfizer pharmaceuticals, and a seasoned public speaker. Since 1993 she has had more than 14 public speaking roles at major medical convocations and conferences, inclusive of 7 conferences specifically related to Lyme disease and other tick borne disorders. Additionally, she has authored, or co-authored, several journal articles and government reports on Lyme disease and other tick borne illnesses since 1997, including those found in the Journal of Spirochetal and Tick Borne Diseases and the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.