Charles Lee is widely recognized as a true Environmental Justice (EJ) pioneer, thought leader, and founder of the EJ movement in the U.S. Over a fifty-year period, he has worked to move an issue without a name to the center stage of the American experience. He was the principal author of the landmark 1987 report, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, organized the historic 1991 First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, and helped spearhead the emergence of federal EJ policy in the early 1990s. Mr. Lee is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Howard University School of Law. He has served in multiple capacities, including creating the United Church of Christ’s EJ program, directing EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice, and as a Senior Policy Advisor at the EPA’s newly created national program office for EJ and external civil rights. Mr. Lee has served on numerous panels, including the EPA National Environmental Justice Advisory Council and the National Academy of Science/Institute of Medicine EJ Committee. He has authored numerous reports and peer-reviewed journal articles. He has received many awards, including WE ACT for Environmental Justice Legacy Award, American Public Health Association Damu Smith Award, and the William Reilly Award for Environmental Leadership. His professional papers are being archived at the Library of Congress, as a person who “has helped shape the course of our national experience.”