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Learn About Lee

When it comes to care, we take it personally.

Learn About Lee Specialty Clinic Play the Video

For years, the healthcare community has turned its back on people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). For years physicians, dentists, hospitals, and emergency rooms have quietly told patients with IDD and their families seeking care for them, to find that care elsewhere. Now there’s another way. A better way. A healthy way. There’s a place where people with IDD are treated with tenderness, compassion, understanding, and respect. There’s a place where doctors care for their patients with IDD with sensitivity; and they accept each of their patients as important and valued individuals.

Where compassion is not just an important thing. It’s everything.

Developmental
Medicine Neurology Physical
Therapy
Behavior
Analysis Crisis
Intervention Audiology Nutrition
Developmental
Dentistry Psychiatry Occupational
Therapy Speech and Language Pathology Behavioral
Analysis Crisis
Intervention Audiology Nutrition
Ophthalmology Podiatry Other Specialist Services

Words alone can’t describe our dedication to treating people with IDD.
But here are a few.

“The idea behind the Lee Specialty Clinic was a dream of mine for many years. It provides a safe, seamless and comfortable place for its patients to get the kind of all-round support and care that can be very hard for them or their families to find. The clinic plays a vital role in caring for our special needs population.”

Jimmie LeeJimmie Lee
Former Member,
KY House of Representatives

“I have followed the evolution of the Lee Specialty Clinic for nearly a decade, and I've seen the results of the work done by the doctors who work there. They are truly international leaders in this field.”

Timothy Shriver, PhD,Timothy Shriver, PhD,
Chairman of the Board,
Special Olympics International

“I put all of my trust in the team at Lee Specialty Clinic. The big difference here is the empathy and the listening skills that they have for people with disabilities. The Clinic has given me the tools, the resources, and the confidence to learn enough about my body to do things that have surprised not just me but everyone around me.”

Chrissie WalkerChrissie Walker
Patient,
Lee Specialty Clinic

“I have been a patient at the Lee Specialty Clinic for many years, and all of the staff are kind, welcoming, and very understanding. There are no other dental clinics that will take people with disabilities in Kentucky, so I have recommended the Lee to lots of friends. They all thank me every time I see them. It’s a wonderful place.”

Terry LeighTerry Leigh
Patient,
Lee Specialty Clinic

Living with IDD can sometimes seem like a life-long battle. Here, it doesn’t have to.
How Can We Help

We rewrote the book on intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Now, we’re redefining how to teach it.

Teaching

We offer a broad range of undergraduate, pre-doctoral, and postgraduate teaching programs.

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Research

We share our expertise with the medical, dental, and allied healthcare community by writing and participating in original scientific research.

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Nationally recognized. Internationally renowned. Yet some might
say it’s our patients who are really the exceptional ones.

Matt Holder, MD, MBA

Matt Holder, MD, MBA

Chief Executive Officer

MattHolder@admed.usView Bio
Matt Holder, MD, MBA

Matt Holder, MD, MBA

Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Matthew Holder is recognized as an international leader in the care of individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD).

Dr. Holder began working on what would result in Developmental Medicine becoming a recognized medical expertise soon after starting his career. In 2002, he took over the American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry (AADMD).  Since then the AADMD has set the curriculum and standards that guide medical students, residents and fellowship-level physicians to better treat and understand patients with IDD.  Medical schools and residency programs around the world have implemented curriculum changes based on the work done by Dr. Holder and the AADMD.

In 2005 Dr. Holder became Global Medical Advisor for the Special Olympics. Dr. Holder has trained thousands of healthcare providers in addressing the health needs of athletes with IDD. He also assists the American Medical Association and the American Dental Association in developing and passing resolutions that improve the lives and healthcare of IDD patients.

Dr. Holder, alongside colleague Dr. Henry Hood, designed and developed a unique, interdisciplinary patient care and teaching model that meets the health needs of adults with IDD living in the community – the first of its kind in the nation. Today the Lee Specialty Clinic exists as a testament their shared vision.

Dr. Holder is a graduate of the University of Louisville School of Medicine.

Henry Hood, DMD

Henry Hood, DMD

Chief Clinical Officer

Henryhood@admed.usView Bio
Henry Hood, DMD

Henry Hood, DMD

Chief Clinical Officer

Dr. Henry Hood is the Chief Clinical Officer at the Lee Specialty Clinic. Dr. Hood’s entire career has focused on clinical, teaching, research and advocacy work in the care of patients with IDD.

Dr. Hood is a nationally-recognized leader in Developmental Dentistry. He is responsible for multiple pre-doctoral and postgraduate IDD dentistry clinical and didactic teaching programs. He has also written internationally-published book chapters and scientific articles on IDD dentistry. In 2014 the Kentucky Board of Dentistry recognized Dr. Hood’s leadership in special needs dental education by designating the Lee Specialty Clinic as an independent teaching institution.

Dr. Hood has served as a forensic consultant in the evaluation of abuse, neglect, and death of community-based and institutionalized individuals with IDD. He has worked with multiple law enforcement and protective agencies in promoting the wellbeing of individuals with IDD in community and institutional settings.

Dr. Hood is also the co-founder and Past President of the American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry, the nation’s first and only interdisciplinary professional organization of physicians and dentists with expertise in the care of patients with IDD.

Dr. Hood is a graduate of The University of Louisville Dental School.

Tanyika Wan, RHIT

Tanyika Wan, RHIT

Chief Administrative Officer

TanyikaWan@admed.usView Bio
Tanyika Wan, RHIT

Tanyika Wan, RHIT

Chief Administrative Officer

Tanyika Wan began her career working with IDD patients in 1997 following nine years in hospital coding and statistics. She then served as Director of Health Information Management at the Hazelwood Center, an intermediate care facility for IDD patients, overseeing medical information and records for all residents.

In 1998, Ms. Wan began working with Dr. Henry Hood in the development of an outpatient medical and dental clinic for community-based individuals with IDD. Ms. Wan provided critical support to Dr. Hood in the founding of the Underwood and Lee Medical Clinic in 2002, where she served as Clinic Manager before becoming Chief Administrative Officer in 2006. In 2011, building on what was then a fourteen-year career dedicated to people with IDD, Ms. Wan began working with Drs. Holder and Hood in the development of the Lee Specialty Clinic.
Ms. Wan also has a ten-year body of consulting work focused on practice management principles in general medicine and neurosurgery.

Ms. Wan graduated from Western Kentucky University as a registered health information technician.

Kristin Compton, DMD

Kristin Compton, DMD

Dental Director

kristincompton@admed.usView Bio
Kristin Compton, DMD

Kristin Compton, DMD

Dental Director

Dr. Kristin Compton began her dental career at Kool Smiles treating pediatric patients. She then spent five years as Director of Dental Services at the Orange Grove Center in Chattanooga, TN, a center for patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She led the Orange Grove Center’s dental rotations for Chattanooga State Dental Hygiene students.

Dr. Compton became the Developmental Dentistry Director at the Lee Specialty Clinic in October 2014. In addition to managing the dental clinic and staff, she runs the Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) program in conjunction with Lutheran Medical Centers and New York University. In addition to her roles at LSC, Dr. Compton is also the Kentucky state clinical director for Special Smiles, Special Olympics, a program offers dental screenings for athletes participating in Special Olympics events.

Dr. Compton is a 2003 graduate of Alice Lloyd College ad a 2007 graduate of the University of Louisville School of Dentistry, where she remains an adjunct faculty member. She continued her education with a one year Fellowship in Developmental Dentistry at the Underwood and Lee Clinic under the direction of Dr. Henry Hood.

Paula Robinson, MD

Paula Robinson, MD

Medical Director, Bingham Gardens; Developmental Physician

PaulaRobinson@admed.usView Bio
Paula Robinson, MD

Paula Robinson, MD

Medical Director, Bingham Gardens; Developmental Physician

Dr. Paula Robinson joined the Lee Clinic in 2014 and has spent much of her career improving the lives and addressing the medical needs of patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

Prior to joining the Lee Specialty Clinic, Dr. Robinson served the United States Air Force as a flight surgeon and family physician. Honorably discharged, Dr. Robinson moved to Virginia where she worked in private practice for some years before moving to Kentucky in 1993 with her husband, a Louisville native, and her family.

Dr. Robinson has worked in both hospital and private practice settings in Kentucky. The mother of a child with IDD, she serves on the advisory board for the University of Kentucky study on aging with Down Syndrome. Dr. Robinson is a member of the American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry, and has spoken at numerous conferences for healthcare providers caring for patients with IDD.

A board certified family physician, Dr. Robinson graduated from the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine in Oklahoma City. She completed a family medicine residency at Duke-Fayetteville Area Health Education Center in North Carolina.

Philip May, MD

Philip May, MD

Clinical Quality Specialist

Our Staff

Our clinic couldn’t function if it weren’t for their skill, commitment, and dedication.

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We see the person, not just the disability.
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