Exclusive: Healthcare CEO refuses to resign or provide proof of doctorate following Karlstack investigation
“One lie has the power to tarnish a thousand truths”
Venus Lee joined GraceMed as COO in 2010, in 2013 became Associate Executive Officer, and, in January 2020, Venus became GraceMed’s CEO.
In 2022, the most recent tax filings are available, Gracemed Health Clinic Inc. had revenues of $36.7 million, 300+ employees, and Venus was compensated $242,560.
GraceMed is a Christian nonprofit, receives HHS funding and has Federal Public Health Service (PHS) deemed status.
GraceMed operates a chain of 16 medical clinics in Wichita, Clearwater, Topeka, and McPherson, Kansas, serving ‘‘tens of thousands of patients’’. They provide:
Primary Medical
Dental
Vision
Behavioural Health
Podiatry
Pharmacy
Outreach
Spiritual Care
Community Care
Venus Lee promotes herself as holding a ThD from Emory University, as featured in the Wichita Business Journal:
Emory is the best university in the state of Georgia.
It is ranked as the #24th-best school nationwide, according to US News.
Her current LinkedIn education section is blank (I wonder why?), but RocketReach archives old LinkedIn information, and indicates that she previously boasted about a 2004-2007 ThD from Emory:
An archived version of GraceMed’s website boasts about her ThD:
But GraceMed’s current website has since been updated to remove any reference to her education:
I reached out to GraceMed last week, and curiously, the very next day, they added a blog section to Venus Lee’s profile:
I reached out to Wichita State University to inquire if her MBA exists, but did not receive a response — so the jury is still out on the MBA.
I reached out to Emory University, however, to confirm her more important degree, the doctorate in theology, and an Emory spokesperson told me:
Emory has no records for Venus Lee a student within the ThD program. We also checked Venus [possible maiden name] and found no record of a student with that name within the ThD program.
— Emory University Assistant Vice President of University Communications
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I was assisted in researching this story by a Twitter account called ‘‘Fake PhD Investigator’’, follow him on Twitter and Substack.
Furthermore, nobody named ‘‘Venus’’ exists in Emory's Thesis and Dissertation repository…. a dissertation is very much a requirement for Emory’s ThD program:
Next, I called GraceMed to ask them to confirm or deny the allegations of a fake doctorate. I spoke to their HR department, and they assured me that they ‘‘correctly verified her academic credentials’’ through a 3rd-party Human Resources consultant. Okay. Why does GraceMed’s HR consultant vs. Emory’s records say conflicting things? I came up with 2 possible reasons:
Venus Lee’s husband is a Human Resources consultant who operates a 3rd-party Human Resources consultancy in Wichita. I asked Venus directly if her husband was ‘‘involved at all with verifying your academic credentials’’, but she refused to answer.
Another possible reason is that Venus legally changed her name, so, I asked her if she changed her name, or perhaps went by a maiden name. I repeatedly asked Venus Lee directly if she would inform me of any old names, but she repeatedly refused.
Two days after I told her I couldn’t find any proof of her doctorate, Venus texted me directly:
‘‘On Monday, I am going to address the board and the staff, and I am going to turn in my notice.’’
— Statement from Venus Lee to Karlstack
I guess she'd rather resign than answer the question.
Or, maybe not.
On Tuesday, I followed up with her.
‘‘Did you turn in your notice?’’
— Christopher Brunet
‘‘I was so tired … I [realize] that wouldn’t be the thing to do.’’
— Venus Lee
‘‘So… does the ThD exist, potentially under a maiden name? I’ve asked multiple times and haven’t gotten a straight answer. The existence of the degree is my main concern/question. If the ThD degree exists, this shouldn’t be a hard question to answer.’’
— Christopher Brunet
No comment
— Venus Lee
Why Does This Matter?
Fake doctorates degrade the value of every other doctorate, and fake Emory degrees degrade every other Emory degree. Simple as.
“One lie has the power to tarnish a thousand truths.”
If she can do the job without a doctoral degree, then what is the point of demanding someone have a doctoral degree?
It makes me wonder how common this is.
The more tangible impact is on patients and employees at GraceMed. They deserve a leader with real, verifiable credentials.
I searched for all healthcare companies with 200-500 employees (the same size as GraceMed) located in Wichita and… lo and behold… GraceMed has the single worst employer score on GlassDoor:
HealthBack Home Health 4.6 stars
University of Kanas Physicians 4.0 stars
South Central Kansas Medical Center 3.9 stars
Heartland Hospice 3.5 stars
Kansas Medical Center 3.8 stars
Rock Regional Hospital 3.5 stars
Presbyterian Manors 3.6 stars
Pratt Regional Medical Center 3.4 stars
Ascension 3.4 stars
Carepoint Health 3.3 stars
Catholic Care Center 3.1 stars
Susan B. Allen Memorial Hospital 3.1 stars
Reeds Cove Health & Rehabilitation 3.0 stars
Kansas Heart Hospital 2.8 stars
GraceMed 2.4 stars
This score does not appear to be an anomaly, as they have a similarly lowest employer score on Indeed:
Note that the GlassDoor score might be skewed by old reviews, since there are reviews older than 2020, and Venus Lee only took over in 2020. Still, several recent reviews scathingly single out the new CEO and management:
A couple even say that ‘‘GraceMed needs to be looked at through the state’’:
‘‘The State needs to come in and do a thorough 6-7 month investigation on the company’’:
A few say that the company ‘‘hides behind God’’:
Perhaps that is the point of this fake doctorate in theology… To hide behind God.
“Such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.”
— Romans 16:17-18
At the 21:05 mark of this video, when asked about her education, instead of bragging about, or elaborating on, her doctorate, she quickly articulates "Emory" with such a depth of sorrow, a whisper barely escaping her lips, looks downward, and then immediately changes the subject away from academia.
Harvard, too? First I’m hearing about that….
I heard that you went to Harvard, and other places like Wichita State, Emory. Tell us about your schooling.
— Interviewer
I did do a program at Harvard, it was wonderful, that was for business, one through [Wichita State], one from Emory.
— Venus Lee
Do only the guilty sleep soundly in jail? It is my contention, and indeed my hope, that now this investigation is out in the open, tonight she may find a more restful slumber than she has known in many years. As a result of this sunlight, she will now be allowed to pursue a life of genuine authenticity, liberated from the chains of deceit. If she explicitly admits to the fake degree and genuinely seeks absolution and endeavors towards repentance, it is our moral imperative to extend forgiveness. No individual ought to remain perpetually ensnared by the specter of their former self, trapped in a lie they told two decades ago. People change.
Yet, let us not be naive; to place the well-being of tens of thousands of vulnerable patients in her hands would be foolish. There’s only one question you need to ask yourself. Would you trust Venus Lee to be in charge of your family’s healthcare?
Investigative journalism involves taking risks.
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Credentialism has run amok among the Left-Dem set. They all love the initials after their last name and the status their credentials convoke upon them, in their minds. But what such people miss is that we have a higher expectation of such people. They SHOULD be better at what they do, but often today are not. I remember a casual conversation that started in a Cambridge MA restaurant on a Tuesday night, not crowded.
My waiter asked what I was reading, and it was a great book on China, The 100 Year Marathon. Turns out he was a PhD candidate in international studies and focused on China. I could see his demeanor change and he became smug and arrogant. So we began discussing China - he was pretty ignorant of their history. He was utterly ignorant of Mao's predations on his own people to a degree I found shocking. I'd read numerous books on China at this point, including a biography of Mao by his personal physician who'd finally escaped China. He knew nothing of Mao's systematic personal rapve of thousands of young Chinese girls who were delivered to him every night, and gave them all syphilis.
Instead he had the glowing fake history of China that is taught by the Chinese. They supposedly have no history of imperialism, lol - what about Tibet and Mongolia etc. He had no answers. He claimed they were peaceful, I cited Mao lauding his efforts in the Korean war, bragging how they had taken 100 blows to land only one, but it was the most important one. Mao was very willing to use force to get his way inside and outside of China. It went on and on, he didn't really know anything more than the propaganda one hears. He didn't understand the extent of their IP theft, their active subversion campaigns here and how corrupt their economic system was.
I was shocked. I just read books and sure, I'm kinda smart. But I expected him to be much deeper and better sourced etc. But he wasn't. He was pretty ignorant of many aspects of China. I expected he could successfully deflect some of my comments and criticisms but he couldn't. It was very weird. He got frustrated and stopped at a certain point. I came away with even more doubts about what the "Ivy league" was actually producing. Don't get me wrong the guy was 'smart' but in the way elitists are these days.
You ever see the movie "The Great Imposter" with Tony Curtis? Based on a prolific credential-fraudster. This sort of thing is just so normal. It's unfortunate, and dangerous, and costly, and, sadly, ever so normal. If you looked into everyone those ivory tower walls would come tumbling down.