Winner of the 2017 Wainwright Social Justice Award

Chau-ming Lee 1952-2017
 

Emigrating from Hong Kong to Boston, Chau-ming Lee began his career as a social worker at New England Medical Center, now known as Tufts Medical Center.  In 1982, Lee was appointed the Executive Director of the Asian American Civic Association (AACA).  He led the organization to its leadership position in workforce development, adult basic education, social service and immigration service, helping economically disadvantaged and limited English speaking immigrants achieve economic self-sufficiency and citizenship.

AACA serves a diverse population from 125 countries and advises clients on a wide range of immigration matters including adjustment of status, filing for reunion with family members, citizenship applications, and refugee and permanent residency filings through the Immigration Clinic, which Lee founded 20 years ago.  He began the NextStep Program in 1993, an advanced ESOL program for immigrants preparing for college entrance and job training, and designed AACA’s unique Case Management Retention model in 2005, which continues to ensure the success of AACA students in college or in their new careers.  Lee is perhaps best known for personally helping thousands of individuals with immigration inquiries by being available every Friday at the AACA drop in clinic, where people waited hours for his assistance.

Lee was a council member of the Boston Private Industry Council, Chinatown/South Cove Neighborhood Council and an advisory council member of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.  He was a member of the Chinatown Coalition, the Governor’s Advisory Council on Minority Services of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Boston’s Mayor Task Force on Community Service, and served on the board of the Voluntary Law Project of the American Bar Association.

Past Recipients of Social Justice Award