Celebrating Charles Lee for AANHPI Heritage Month

In this article

The month of May is designated as Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. This is a time to remember and celebrate the history and contributions of these communities to American society. To celebrate this month, we want to highlight the work of Taiwanese American environmentalist Charles Lee.

Lee is an environmental justice activist and former Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Environmental Justice at the Environmental Protection Agency.

Lee began his environmental justice journey when he joined a protest in Warren County, North Carolina, in 1982, to protest a PCB landfill that was to be installed in a predominantly Black community. At this protest, he met organizers from the United Church of Christ (UCC) and was eventually hired on as their Environmental Justice Program Director.

In 1987, the seminal report, Toxic Waste and Race in the United States, was released by the UCC, with Lee as the principal writer. This report was the first national study to link race (more than socioeconomic status) to the location of commercial hazardous waste facilities. This study was fundamental to the building of the environmental justice movement.

In 1991, he organized the first National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit which brought hundreds of environmental leaders together to create the 17 Principles of Environmental Justice and the Principles of Working Together, which still are foundational texts in the environmental justice work. Eventually, Lee moved on to work for the Environmental Protection Agency in 1999, where he remained until his retirement in March 2025.

Charles Lee's impact on the environmental justice field cannot be overstated. We are grateful for his decades-long commitment to the protection of the environment and underserved communities.