Like many visitors who quickly turn into long-time volunteers, Dr. Gee was impressed by the people he met: Sam Singh, founder of the Pardada Pardadi Educational Society (PPES); Renuka Gupta, its CEO then; and of course the students at the all-girls school. Together, they inspired Dr. Gee to return to Anupshahr again and again. “It’s hard to walk away when you see what Sam and Renuka have accomplished over 20 years,” he says. “Just hearing the girls’ stories makes you want to stay involved.”

On his second visit, Dr. Gee visited several Anupshahr villages with two Wayne State University medical students and regular volunteer Mary Cairns. That team taught basic hygiene to villagers and students, and continued the Center’s vaccination program. Today, as co-director of Prana Health Center, Dr. Gee is committed to ensuring its future.

Dr. Gee has been so encouraged by his work at PPES that he is helping start a non-profit “Free and Charitable Clinic” in his Wyoming community. He will assume the role of Medical Director of the Clinic.  By seeing what can be achieved with plenty of hard work and caring at PPES, he believes that his community can mirror the efforts made in Anupshahar to help those who can’t afford health care at home in the US.

Dr. Gee is a family physician at LifePoint Hospitals in Lander, Wyoming with almost three decades of emergency medicine and acute care experience.  He also teaches wilderness medicine at  the Wilderness Medicine Institute of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS).