Tameka Sanders-Lee, DPM

Dr. Tameka Sanders-Lee, D.P.M., received a 4-year academic scholarship to Tulane University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a minor in Philosophy. Her academic career then took her from undergraduate study in New Orleans, LA to podiatry school in Chicago, IL at Scholl College.

During her training, she had the opportunity to rotate at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio where there is a rich history of care for the diabetic foot, research, and education. That experience would give her the construct for her current approach to diabetic care and limb salvage/amputation prevention.

Two years of residency in Detroit, MI would further help Dr. Lee refine how she approached all manner of diagnosis and treatment. Working in the city was her first time to advance diversity in service to a community. She would stay on to practice for the Henry Ford Health System for another six years, where she integrated a multispecialty approach to conservative and surgical management of foot and ankle.

Seventeen years later, Dr. Lee would finally return to Birmingham. Once here, she was shocked at the large diabetic population and the scarcity of resources and access to medical care for that demographic. She quickly realized that she would be most effective as a physician by combining her clinical expertise with her relationship to the community she knew so well.

She jumped right in, becoming the first podiatrist to practice surgically within the Baptist Health System. She chose to establish herself at the Princeton Campus in the southwest area of the city to advance health-equity in a community in need. She called on all of her prior experience to create a unique approach to podiatry practice that encompassed outpatient clinic, inpatient care, surgery, and multidisciplinary support including internists, vascular specialists, and wound/vein clinics. Ultimately her time in solo practice would mature to a department within a larger multispecialty group. This then expanded the services and diagnostics that she could offer her patients.

At this juncture in her career, she is excited to partner with Upperline Health to take her experience and apply it to giving back to a community that has embraced her so much.