Yoon Mo Lee, Ph.D.

Dr. Yoon Lee is the Chief of Research, Planning and Development of the Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR). He is also the Department’s Federal Grant Project Director, the Webmaster of IDHR’s web site, as well as its Strategic Planning pbView System Administrator.

Dr. Lee received his B.S. degree in agricultural science from Seoul National University, and his M.Div. degree in Christian Social Ethics from the Seoul Methodist Theological Seminary, South Korea. Later, he completed the coursework for a Th.M. degree from Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky, and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in sociology from Loyola University of Chicago.

At the IDHR, Dr. Lee has served on various special task forces as chair or co-chair to reform the Department’s organizational units and to overhaul operational procedures. He chaired the (Human Rights) Investigators’ Time Management Study Task Force, the outcome of which was that the Department implemented a new streamlined charge processing procedure and cleared an over 7,000 complaint backlog. He also conducted an internal examination of IDHR’s staff attorneys’ turnover issues and public mediation service procedures. Consequently, the legal division management style was modified, staff attorneys were relieved from mediation related duties, and attorneys’ turnover rates were stabilized.

As the Grant Project Director of IDHR, Dr. Lee wrote proposals to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and won competitive grants two times. He successfully administered the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data Research Project in 1996, then, working with a team of contractors, created the Illinois Statewide Fair Housing Network and a housing database under the Internet Project in 1999.

For a considerable period of time, Dr. Lee has been actively involved in the Korean American community in the Chicagoland area. He played a pivotal role in the growth of the Korea Times of Chicago, for which he was a reporter, the managing editor, and the chief editor for almost twenty years. This initial weekly edition of the newspaper has grown to a Korean language daily newspaper, now serving over twenty central states. As the first CEO of the Korean American TV of Chicago, Dr. Lee set the foundation of a cable programming outfit to grow to a fulltime UHF broadcasting enterprise. Currently, the firm owns and operates the Channel 28 TV of Chicago with multiethnic programming.

As an accomplished researcher, Dr. Lee voluntarily undertook research for the well being of the Korean community. He designed and conducted a housing market survey for the Korean American Housing Corporation, which received funds from FHA for two $3 million-plus public housing projects in the early 1980’s. He also conducted four research surveys for the Korean American Community Services (KACS) of Chicago. Consequently, KACS founded the Korean community’s childcare center, senior citizens organization, youth service programs, and continues to grow.

Dr. Lee played a key role in resolving the Korean-Black conflict which erupted in the Roseland community of Chicago in June 1990. He was the volunteer spokesperson for the Korean Merchants’ Association, and his accomplishments were featured by the New York Times, major mass media in Chicago, and personal interviews broadcasted by CNN and WGN-TV. After the resolution of this conflict, he initiated a fund raising within the Asian American community for the Food Basket Program to help low income African Americans of Chicago. Since then, this annual charity program has become a model program in race relations. During the Los Angeles riot in 1992 after the Rodney King incident, Dr. Lee proactively engaged in media-relations, and headed off another uprising in the African American community of Chicago.

Dr. Lee served as a board member and, currently, the lead research advisor of the Asian American Institute of Chicago. He also served as a member of Discrimination Action Grant Review Committee of the United Way/Crusade of Mercy-Chicago Council in the early 1990’s. He served as the key member in founding the Korean American Coalition of the Midwest (KACM), and initiated a Midwest petition drive for reunification of Korean Americans with families in North Korea. He coordinated the delivery of over 100,000 signatures collected from a nationwide campaign to the U.S. Department of State, and to have meeting with Secretary Colin Powell (September 2001) and Assistant Secretary James Kelly (April 2002).

Dr. Lee wrote a number of reports for the government based on his research, which include Home Mortgage Lending Patterns in the Chicago MSA, Home Mortgage Lending Patterns in Downtown Illinois, and Sexual Harassment in Illinois. He also has authored numerous reports on discriminations concerning lending, home sales and traffic ticketing, as well as reports of special task forces, and employee and client surveys for IDHR management’s use.  In addition, Dr. Lee has authored a book, Seventy Years’ History of the First Korean United Methodist Church of Chicago in 1995. Before coming to the U.S. in 1970, he translated two books from English into Korean, including The Line and Plummet (published by World Council on Churches). He has published a number of academic papers and journal articles.

Dr. Lee is a prolific public speaker and has been the keynote speaker or the guest speaker on a number of occasions. He has delivered speeches on race, ethnicity, and social issues at the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, Chicago Historical Society, Asian American Librarians Association Annual Conference, and others.

Dr. Lee has been married to Hwa S. (Kim) Lee for over thirty years. The couple’s first daughter, Shirline is working for her Ph.D. degree in public health administration at Emory University, and the younger daughter Deborah begins her international law degree program at the University of Virginia in the fall of 2003.