What impression will you leave with your hands? | Lina Lee (KACF Women's Luncheon)

KACF's Women's Luncheon | Giving Reimaginedㅡan extension of our Giving Summitㅡcelebrates all the ways that Korean American women are giving back to their communities and helping to shape the future of social impact: kacfny.org/womensluncheon.
Our second guest speaker, Lina Lee, reflects on how she was able to draw strength and purpose from her personal experiences as a child of immigrants and from her professional experiences as an attorney to start a nonprofit empowering low-income families to fight against housing injustice.
About Lina Lee: Lina Lee is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Communities Resist, a legal services organization for housing justice in NYC. Lina started Communities Resist in June 2019 with a staff of 17 attorneys, organizers, and advocates and in the span of four and a half years, the organization has had one of the highest rates of growth across nonprofits serving over 4,000 tenants across NYC. By next year, the organization will have grown to be 45 full-time staff with a $6 million budget. It is currently the largest provider of high impact affirmative legal services for low-income tenants across Brooklyn and Queens fighting against the most predatory landlords. Lina has extensive experience representing low-income immigrant tenants facing eviction, harassment, and housing discrimination in some of the most gentrified neighborhoods in NYC. She has worked closely with tenant and community organizers, played a lead role in community coalitions fighting displacement, and represented numerous tenant associations involved in protracted struggles against predatory landlords. Previously, Lina served as Deputy Director at Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A, and as a Staff Attorney at the MinKwon Center, where she represented Asian immigrant tenants across NYC in dire need of culturally and linguistically accessible legal services. It was with this perspective in mind that Lina founded Communities Resist.
Lina was recognized in 2021 Nonprofit 40 under 40, 2022 Nonprofit Power 100, and 2023 Nonprofit Power 100 by City & State New York. Lina was also selected to participate in the Coro, Immigration Civic Leadership Program, 2014 Cohort, as a city-wide housing specialist resource and to implement an initiative on language service programs in housing court. She currently serves on the MinKwon Center board. Ms. Lee received her B.S. from Cornell University and J.D. from Boston University School of Law.