Justice Harry J. Elam Judicial Conference – Virtual Fall Conference 2021

Justice Harry J. Elam Judicial Conference
(formerly known as Massachusetts Black Judges Conference)

VIRTUAL FALL CONFERENCE 2021
Confronting Racism against AAPI Community

Thursday, September 9, 2021
3:00 – 4:30 PM
Zoom
Cosponsored by the Flaschner Judicial Institute

Agenda:
1. Honoring Supreme Judicial Court justices: Chief Justice Kimberly Budd, Associate Justice Dalila Wendlandt, and Associate Justice Serge Georges, Jr.
2. Confronting Racism against AAPI community: Past, Present, and Future (Guest Speakers: Professor Paul Watanabe and Suzanne Lee)

Paul Watanabe is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institute for Asian American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He served on President Obama’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and as the first Chair of the U.S. Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations. He is the President of the Board of Directors of the Nisei Student Relocation Commemorative Fund; a member of the Advisory Board of the New Americans Integration Institute; the Board of Directors of the South Shore Health System; and the Board of Trustees of the Harry H. Dow Memorial Legal Assistance Fund. His publications have appeared in the principal journals of his field as well as in scholarly volumes. He is the author of Ethnic Groups, Congress, and American Foreign Policy.

Suzanne Lee worked in the Boston Public Schools for 35 years, first as a teacher and later as a principal. She led a high-profile turnaround at the Baldwin School in Brighton, improving a low-achieving and divided school into a nationwide model for school improvement. She went on to head the Josiah Quincy Elementary School for 10 years, instituted City Connects program and served as cluster leader for 15 schools. During her tenure, the school was named one of the Best 100 Elementary Schools in Massachusetts in 2005.

Suzanne has been a community leader for more than five decades, helping immigrant mothers launch the first Chinese Parents Association and unemployed garment workers secure Boston’s first bilingual training programs as well as working closely with the Boston Foundation to address persistent poverty in the city. She was the lead founder and longtime chair of the Chinese Progressive Association, a founding member of the Massachusetts Asian American Educators Association, and served on the Massachusetts Advisory Council on Bilingual Education and the English Language Learners Task Force for the Boston Public Schools.

Since retirement from BPS Suzanne has been an active member of the Women’s Pipeline for Change and ran for Boston City Council in 2011 and 2013. She is currently a board member of the Chinatown Community Land Trust, BEST and Boston Senior Home Care, she also works as a leadership development coach for the Boston Public Schools, Women Pipeline for Change, and Community based organizations to build capacity of women leadership to continue the struggle for Equality, Justice, and Democracy.