Elizabeth Chun Hye (Liz) Lee lives in Queens, New York, and is the Climate Justice Lead and Executive for Economic and Environmental Justice at United Methodist Women (UMW), a national 800,000 member faith-based organization for women that nurtures spiritual growth, develops strong leaders, and promotes justice. Her primary area of work is advancing climate justice with members, church, and society, through trainings, program development, partnerships, corporate engagement, advocacy, and solidarity. Her approach to climate justice is through gender, human rights, and theological analyses.

Grounded in her faith, Liz recognizes that all entities — whether they are perceived to be living or non-living — are sacred. Throughout her work, Liz aims to build justice into our relationships, communities, and institutions. She believes that central to this mission is the questioning, challenging and dismantling of systems of dominance and oppression that deny the full dignity of individuals and communities. She was recently recognized as one of “10 Christian Women Shaping the Church in 2020.”

Prior to UMW, Liz served as the Director for Young Adult Mission Service at Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, spearheading the redesign of the historic US-2 and Mission Intern programs into the Global Mission Fellows program while developing over 100 global and national partnerships. Liz has also worked with the World Council of Churches’ United Nations Liaison Office, focused on human rights, gender justice, migration, indigenous people’s rights, and climate displacement. Liz also worked as a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs (New York) and a Williams in China Fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Asian Human Rights Commission (Hong Kong). Liz has served on boards and executive teams including Global Youth Connect, Ecumenical Women at the United Nations, the World Student Christian Federation Trustees in the USA, and Nexus Korean American UMC network. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Liz currently lives in with her husband and daughter in Queens, NY, navigating what it means to “Be Just. Be Green.”

Elizabeth is leading UMW’s “Just Energy for All” campaign to educate and mobilize women of faith to put pressure on companies and governments to move from fossil fuels to clean renewable energy. Whether through advancing 100% clean renewable energy policies, engaging with utilities, or working with schools, transportation, and bus companies for zero-emission vehicles, Liz envisions a just and equitable transition that prioritizes women’s voices from frontline and environmental justice communities.