Elizabeth Lee
GYC Board Member

As an immigrant Asian-American growing up within the socio-economic cultural-and-religiously diverse streets of NYC, Liz cherishes diversity and "the other" and has had a long interest in understanding agency, margins and the intersection between justice, policy and theology.  While in high school she co-founded the Unity Retreat that continues to annually gather several hundred Christian students for interdenominational and interracial reconciliation.  

Before graduating with Honors at Williams College with a double major in political science (comparative) and history (marginalized societies), Liz interned with Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, studied abroad at Oxford University and conducted interviews and research in China for her thesis on the political identity of the Chosonjok-Chinese.  

In 2001, she joined GYC's first delegation to Nepal to work with the Bhutanese Refugees and soon moved to Hong Kong as a Williams-in-China Fellow, tutoring classes at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, while continuing her thesis research and working with the Asian Human Rights Commission.  At the Commission, Liz was Co-Facilitator for a 4-day conference on torture violations that gathered human rights activists, clergy and lawyers from South Asia, co-drafted a Sri Lankan police commission resolution and worked on issues that included the right to food in Burma, religious intolerance in Asia, Bhutanese Refugees, and pervasive caste structures within India.  While in Hong Kong Liz also volunteered at Crossroads and with ECC co- coordinated the transportation and distribution of basic goods to street children in Mongolia.  

She returned to New York as a Coro Fellow in Public Policy, better understanding the opportunities for cross-sectoral partnerships to enhance civic life, while working with Pfizer's Organizational strategy group, NYC Dept of Parks, NYC Dept of Small Business Services, and labor advocacy group ROC-NY. 

Liz is presently working on her graduate thesis on the nature of justice, law and theology, with its necessary implications of love and grace for the other within domestic and international religious, economic, social and political life.