The rumors are true. After nearly 20 years with Solid Ground, Tony Lee is officially retiring!
For nearly three decades, the last 19 years as Advocacy Director at Solid Ground, Tony has been our state’s leading lobbyist on issues impacting low-income people and families. In his role at Solid Ground, Tony helped found Poverty Action, playing an essential role in our development and direction.
Tony has spent years as a leader in multi-racial organizing and advocacy. His brilliance and connections, paired with his humor, coupled with a whole lot of hard work and dedication, has resulted in progress on issues spanning welfare reform, food security, housing, and the achievement gap in education. For example, Tony was a driving force behind the creation of the State Food Assistance Program, which extended food benefits to tens of thousands of legal immigrants who were excluded from food stamp eligibility.
With his retirement this week, he steps out of the limelight to travel and spend more time with his family.
Fear not, friends! Tony and his laugh aren’t going far! Tony will continue to serve as Solid Ground and Poverty Action’s Senior Fellow. In this role, he will support Solid Ground’s Board and CEO, as well as Poverty Action, on public policy issues pertaining to education, basic needs programs, and funding for health and human services, including programs serving refugees and immigrants.
For more information, including a video (with Tony doing push-ups!!), check out this post on Solid Ground’s blog.
Thank you Tony! Your work has meant so much to so many people. Not least of all, your work has meant so much to people like me, who have had the joy of working of working so closely and learning so much from you. Thanks for everything!