Dr. Jia Ling Li was born in Tianjin, China, the youngest of five children. Growing up closely with her older siblings, Dr. Li studied medicine and agriculture in high school, and was financially supported by her father, also a physician, to go to medical school. She enrolled in an 8-year program where she was an undergraduate student at Beijing University for three years before attending Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) for five years. Her studies at PUMC was prematurely stopped due to the Cultural Revolution and she was then assigned to practice medicine at Guizhou with her husband, who she met in medical school. From there, Dr. Li taught and obtained a Master's degree in physiology at PUMC and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. During the interview, she shared some of the sacrifices she made for family, as well as her perspectives on life.
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