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Meizhu Lui Press Release
For Immediate Release: Contact: Lori Warren, Director of Communications
July 18, 2008 (510) 251-2600 X103
Renowned Economic Justice Organizer Joins the Insight Center
in Newly Created Position
OAKLAND─The Insight Center for Community Economic Development announces the appointment of Meizhu Lui in the newly created position of Director, Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative.
The Initiative, funded by the Ford Foundation, is part of a multi-year effort to increase the visibility and impact of experts of color in the asset building field. Beginning a new phase, the Initiative will now build momentum to put in place policies and programs that not only improve economic security for all through asset ownership, but also eliminate racial wealth disparities. Today, due to policies of the past, families of color own only 15 cents to the white family’s dollar. The Initiative is part of the Insight Center’s portfolio of programs designed to increase the economic well-being of low-income people and communities.
“Meizhui is truly an icon in this field of work,” said Roger A. Clay, Jr., the Insight Center’s President. “Her experience as an educator, organizer, and scholar make her uniquely qualified to lead this critically important initiative, and we are thrilled that she is joining us.
Ms. Lui was formally the Executive Director of United for a Fair Economy, a national, nonprofit that works to publicize issues of growing economic inequality, income and wealth disparities, and the persistent economic gap between whites and people of color. Under Meizhu’s leadership, UFE sharpened its communication efforts and expanded its reach, tapping into the concerns of grassroots constituencies, including those who do not speak English as their first language.
Meizhu describes herself as a “professional troublemaker.” She was a kitchen worker and AFSCME activist, and was the first Asian to become the elected President of a local union in Massachusetts. Her work for racial and gender equality has been recognized by numerous organizations such as the Boston Women’s Fund, the Union of Minority Neighborhoods, and the Labor Studies Program at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. She is a Trustee of the Hyams Foundation and was selected for the 2007 Barr Fellows Program. Meizhu served on the Center for American Progress Task Force on Poverty. She has published several articles and co-authored of The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the US Racial Wealth Divide.
Founded in 1969, the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, formerly the National Economic Development and Law Center (NEDLC), is a national research, consulting and legal organization dedicated to helping people and communities become, and remain, economically secure. The Insight Center’s multi-disciplinary approach utilizes a wide array of community economic development strategies including industry-focused workforce development, individual and community asset building, establishing the link between early care and education and economic development, and advocating for the adoption of the Self-Sufficiency Standard as a measurement of wage adequacy and an alternative to the Federal Poverty Line.
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