She trained at Princeton University (Princeton, NJ, USA) as an undergraduate, and then attended Johns Hopkins University Medical School (Baltimore, MD, USA) before completing her residency and fellowship at Stanford University. Dr Wakelee's focus is in clinical research in lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies. Dr Wakelee has led several investigator-initiated protocols investigating bevacizumab and other antiangiogenic agents. Other pathways of interest include EGFR-targeted drugs, especially agents designed to overcome resistance and other molecularly targeted agents. She has also worked extensively in the areas of lung cancer in never-smokers and sex differences in lung cancer.