VCU news

By Pam Hervey

On the first day of class each semester, Allen Lee, Ph.D., shows his students a slideshow of pictures from his childhood spent in a small apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He does this to demonstrate that while life was not always simple for him, what he learned about hard work as a child was critical to his future success.

A doctoral adviser and tenured professor of information systems in Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Business, Lee graduated from CornellUniversity, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Of all of his stops, Lee finds he appreciates VCU the most. In light of his own background and experiences, he has learned that he connects most easily with the student body here, one he believes is marked by its determination and drive. “I feel very much at home at VCU,” he said.

Lee recently received the LEO Award for Lifetime Exceptional Achievement in Information Systems that is given to distinguished members of the research community whose contributions have changed the field and influenced others. Lee calls the honor humbling but says receiving it was never a goal. In fact, he thought he was past the point of being considered for the award, which is presented by the Association for Information Systems. Despite publishing articles in top-tier journals, making presentations at international academic conferences and formerly serving as editor-in-chief at the prestigious MIS Quarterly, he still thinks his most important contributions to the field of information systems can be found in his students’ success, not his own.

“I tell all of my students that their job is to exceed what I’ve done as their teacher or else knowledge doesn’t grow,” Lee said.

As a child, Lee wanted to be a farmer when he grew up. He acknowledges that was strange considering he lived in a tenement apartment building in New York City. Lee’s father emigrated to the U.S. from China and worked as the general manager of the Yat Gaw Min Noodle Manufacturing Company in Chinatown his whole life. As a first-generation American and the fourth of five children, Lee understood the importance of working hard for academic success and credits his “tiger mother and tiger father” as the reason for his overachieving qualities.

At Brooklyn Technical High School in New York City, Lee steered toward a science and math track because it was something he enjoyed. He earned a civil engineering degree at Cornell and a master’s in urban planning at Berkeley. He did not consider the field of information systems until after completing his doctoral work in architecture and planning at MIT.

A lot of our careers follow an improbable path and this was mine.

“One of my advisers at MIT … said for me to look for a job in a business school since I had computer skills and I could teach statistics. And I said, ‘But I don’t have a business doctorate’ and she said … ‘They really don’t care,’” Lee said with a laugh. “And so a lot of our careers follow an improbable path and this was mine.”

As a professor and adviser in the VCU School of Business for the last 17 years, Lee’s impact on students and colleagues is evident. His approach to living life to its fullest potential and advising his students to do the same makes the strongest impression on them.

“As Dr. Lee’s student, I have a mentor who is primarily interested in my improvement and success; a person who is proud of assisting his students and observing their career unfold,” said Bernie Farkus, adjunct professor and Ph.D. candidate. “Importantly, Dr. Lee provides an unspoken example that being true to yourself and being a mensch are the ingredients for a successful life.”

Lee’s prominence in the information systems research world has had substantial impact. For instance, an article he authored that established the credibility of qualitative research in his field has had a particularly widespread and lasting influence. The article, which appeared in MIS Quarterly in 1989, has been cited in other research more than 1,400 times.

“To say that he is well-respected would be an understatement,” said Lemuria Carter, Ph.D, and chair of the Department of Information Systems at VCU. “People really flock to him, they really respect his expertise, his work ethic and his approach to research. He’s a profound thinker. When I go to a conference, everyone says ‘Oh you’re at VCU, that’s Allen Lee’s school, right?’”

A lifetime achievement award can suggest the end of a career, but Lee is far from finished, either as a researcher or as a teacher. He continues to embrace his role helping launch students in their pursuits, finding personal reward in their accomplishments.  

“I tell my students, ‘If I’ve influenced you and maybe contributed to some of the success of your life whatever that might be, even if it has nothing to do with information or databases, then I will feel fulfilled.’”

Subscribe for free to the weekly VCU News email newsletter at http://newsletter.news.vcu.edu/ and receive a selection of stories, videos, photos, news clips and event listings in your inbox every Thursday.