Student Profile: Pajouablai Monica Lee (MPA candidate ‘21)

 What drives you every day?
I am a daughter of Hmong refugees from the Secret War in Laos. I grew up the middle child of five in the humble city of St. Paul, Minnesota. It was very much my community’s and their personal struggles that informed my parents’ outlook on public service. Even though they didn’t have much, they gave everything they had to give back to their community with interpretation services, as one of the few bilingual speakers advocating for change in our community, to now working as public servants in the federal government and local St. Paul Public Schools, and volunteering in their free time to help with translation services and community events. I might have grown up poor in money, but I grew up rich in humility and kindness, and learned early on from my parents the importance of public service. They instilled in me and my siblings the value of an education and giving back, and that’s why I’ve made it my life mission to fight for equity and justice for my community. My parents’ commitment and drive to give back, and knowing how much they sacrificed for me to hold the privileges that I have is what motivates me every day to be the best do-gooder I can be.

Background and Organizing Work

During the majority of my past six years I worked at a national Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) civil rights organization in Washington, DC because I wanted to make an impact in my community as a young college graduate. As a passionate leader in youth development, I managed and developed leadership development programs and trained hundreds of AAPI youth leaders and young professionals. Working at OCA- Asian Pacific American Advocates and having to constantly fundraise for my department helped me realize my interest in the intersection of social justice, philanthropy, and policy making. Amidst all of that, I helped lead GOTV efforts during the Hillary campaign in 2016 and most recently, the Biden campaign to reach Hmong voters in key swing states like Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan. As a phone bank captain during the Hilary campaign we made thousands of calls to AAPI voters, and then as one of the Communications Co-Chairs for the Hmong Americans for Biden affinity group, I helped devise a plan that reached more than 125,000 people in 2 months, and garnered nearly 1,000 followers on social media. As a minority group known to be one of the most under-served and under-resourced, it was essential to reach Hmong voters in this year’s election – especially since we have some of the highest voter turnout rates – our vote was key to a Biden-Harris win and we needed to make sure Hmong voters knew that. Last year I co-founded a podcast, Not Your Average Mai, to uplift the voices and stories of Hmong and Southeast Asian women. My co-hosts and I felt like there weren't enough progressive voices in our community so every month we discuss issues that impact our community and encourage our listeners to think critically with a progressive lens.

What interests you about public policy and what issue are you most passionate about?

I’ve always committed to the idea that we can help improve people’s lives for the better through social change, especially the underserved and the marginalized. But I also know that organizing isn’t enough, and that we need public policy to work in synergy with community organizing efforts. As someone from one of the lowest achieving communities who’s seen the gamut from gender oppression to under resourced schools, my passion areas have always involved access to quality higher education, gender equity, combating domestic violence, diversity and inclusion, among many other issue areas. But because of all these different issues that impact my community, I’ve always seen myself more of a generalist, which is why I enrolled in the MPA program to learn more about policy making at a deeper level and to hone my policy analysis skills.