Saturday, January 29, 2011

Biography


Rev. Deborah Lee is the Executive Director of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity (IM4HI).  IM4HI is a California organization that connects clergy and people of faith to the work of social justice. We work to make the criminal justice system more just, and the immigration system more fair and humane. We offer trainings, education and opportunities for meaningful action to make an impact in the larger social movement for racial justice and human rights. In the last two years, we trained 1,800 people of faith to take leadership roles, engaged 180 congregations and partner organizations, and reached more than 40,000 people with a message of hope, love and resilience.

Deborah has worked at the intersection of faith and social justice for over 25 years as an educator and organizer on issues of race, gender, a just economy, anti-militarism and immigration. Her work has consistently bridged different ethnic communities, generations, and geographies in creative and transformational processes. She is a mother, married to popular educator Michael James, and an ordained minister with the Northern California Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ.

Deborah was cited by the Center for American Progress's Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative as one of 13 innovative progressive faith leaders and activists to watch in 2013.   She is the recipient of the 2019 Yuri Kochiyama Impact Award from Advancing Justice- Asian Law Caucus and has received other recognition from the United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministry, the United Nations Association of the East Bay, East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, Eco Viva, CARECEN.

Deborah has been a part of the founding and development of numerous organizations, such as Women for Genuine Security and the Network for Religion and Justice for API-LGBTQ people. From 2000-2009, she was the Program Director of  of PANA, the Institute for Leadership Development and Study of Pacific Asian North American Religion, at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, through which she co-developed and c0-led the PANA Pilgrimages to Manzanar and the Sacramento River Delta.  More recently she has been helped shape the Pilgrimage to Angel Island and Pilgrimages in Oakland, and the Root Causes to Migration Pilgrimage to Honduras and Guatemala.

She is also involved with the International Women’s Network Against Militarism which seeks to hold the U.S. government accountable for the violence, sexual exploitation, economic and environmental effects of U.S. militarism in the many countries which host U.S. bases.   Related to this work, she co-produced with Gwyn Kirk and Lina Hoshino, the documentary, Along the Fenceline: Women Resisting Militarism and Creating a Culture of Life, released in 2012, a  Female Eye Film Festival Award winner and official selection at the Guam International Film Festival.

Other works include: 

Theological panelist on "From National Security to Genuine Security" presentation for the Presbyterian Church USA:  Where do we look for security? 

Author of "Faith As a Tool for Social Change," published in Gendered Lives: Intersectional Perspectives, edited by Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey, 2020.

Author of "Faith Communities as Partners of Hope,"a Blueprint 4 Belonging publication, 2018.

Author of "Wisdom Crying Aloud in the Street," published in Leading Wisdom: Asian and Asian North American Women Leaders, edited by Su Yon Pak and Jung Ha Kim (2017)

Project Coordinator for Asian Pacific Islander Women, Faith and Action: Oral History Project, API women and their faith based activism, website: www.apiwomenfaithaction.blogspot.com.

Co-author with Craig Wong of Congregational Ministry and Advocacy: The Angel Island Immigration Station Era(1910-1940), Angel Island Pilgrimage Committee & CLUE-CA, 2010.

Writer, Crossing Boundaries, Connecting Communities: Alliance Building for Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice, published by the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, 2010.

Producer of documentary film with filmmaker Lina Hoshino: In God's House: Asian American Lesbian and Gay Families in the Church, 2007, 21 minutes.

Author of “Faith Practices for Racial Healing and Reconciliation,” in Realizing the America of our Hearts: Theological Voices by Asian Americans, Eds. Fumitaka Matsuoka and Eleazar Fernandez, Chalice Press, 2003.

Co-editor, with Antonio Salas, of the book:  Unfaithing U.S. Colonialism: Dharma Cloud Publishers, 1999.