Suzanne Lee

Suzanne Lee is a first generation immigrant who arrived in the United States at age 11. Lee was the first in her family to attend college. Today, you can find Lee leading the Josiah Quincy Elementary School, Chinatown’s oldest school. Lee is very proud of the fact that this year her school was named one of the Best 100 Elementary Schools in Massachusetts.

As a leader in the Chinatown Community, Lee is concerned with the Chinese community having full access to education, jobs and housing. “When a population is mainly immigrant, full access to these things is not available,” said Lee. “All the things that many Americans take for granted are just not available to immigrants.”

Lee says she hopes to alleviate her concerns about the community by being a strong activist. The hardworking principal makes sure that the students at the elementary school, where 65 percent of the students are Asian, have full access to the curriculum. “I work closely with the parents to try and make them understand that there are things that they need to expect out of their school system,” said Lee. She also wants the school to be a resource of the community. “I want the school to be a place where organizations can come in and get involved,” said Lee.

Outside of her job, Lee is involved in a number of community organizations and advocacy groups. She is a founding member and chairperson of the Chinese Progressive Association, a grass-roots-community-based organization that seeks to empower the Chinese community through organizing, education and advocacy. She is also a founding member of the Massachusetts Asian American Educators Association and serves on the Massachusetts Advisory Council on Bilingual Education. Lee and 43 other leaders from, different community and city agencies in Boston are part of the Strategy Development Group. Their goal is to eradicate persistent poverty in the city of Boston.

Lee is proud of her vibrant community. She says Chinatown is a place where people really feel like they belong and have a real sense of community. Lee said it best with an anecdote about her father. “Every time my father would come to Chinatown, he would talk really loud, yell in the streets. I would get so embarrassed and ask him why he felt the need to yell? He would reply ‘this is my Chinatown and if I can not act this way here, why call it my Chinatown?’”