“My students need certain things that get me up and to come to the office (and) there are still so many things to do,” Caitlin Lee, director of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire’s Multicultural Student Services (MSS) office, said. “So, Caitlin gets up and does her part.”

Whether acting as a mentor, leader within the Chippewa Valley’s Hmong community, organizer — or lifelong learner — the qualities of each leadership role are what guide Lee through both her professional and personal life.

Lee’s assurance to unmask and showcase her own voice — and the voices of others — perhaps began unconsciously in the 1980s when her family resettled in Eau Claire as refugees from Ban Vinai, Thailand.

Raised in a home grounded in both humility and hard work, Lee’s uprooted existence necessitated an accelerated coming-of-age, as she navigated the stigmas toward her community by those around her.

Lee’s introduction to Eau Claire may be one that mirrors the pool of Hmong refugees who arrived to the city alongside her during that time. Yet, it was through this layered upbringing — and lack of visibility for Hmong culture in the wider community — where she chose to embrace the transformative power of continued education.

“I do truly feel like education is such a game changer for any community, but especially for communities like mine,” Lee said. “Education broadens my horizons, it broadens my ability to think critically about certain things in life and how to engage; how to be more compassionate and more kind to people.”

Lee’s current role in coordinating services and programming for students, and informing administrative systems within the university’s structure, are just some of many examples of her continued service to the UW-Eau Claire campus community.

Following graduation from the same institution — with dual degrees in political science and world politics — she began her advocacy efforts as an equal opportunity specialist in the Affirmative Action Office, coupled with other committee and leadership positions which overlap with her current director role.

It was in these spaces where Lee collaborated with others to support the development of strategic action items to meet commitments to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), the roles of bias in higher education hiring systems, among other strategies to address just representation amongst faculty and staff.

“If you are not on the decision-making table, and you’re not being a part of the decision making process — you’re definitely ‘dinner,’ ” Lee said. “Representation matters because, how can we all be better if we don’t have a diverse pool of individuals who are having conversations and thinking about (lived experiences).”

It was realizations like these, throughout Lee’s career, which led her to receive an unprecedented honor and serve as the first female president of the Eau Claire Area Hmong Mutual Assistance Association (ECAHMAA) — a key stakeholder and organized effort for Hmong representation in the Chippewa Valley.

Through this role and her ongoing advocacy efforts — both deeply rooted in her identity as a Hmong woman — she shared the challenges of entering spaces where representation remained an issue.

“It was an interesting time to become the first Hmong woman to be the president of the board,” Lee noted. “As a young Hmong woman, I never found those spaces that would allow us to bring a different voice to the table, to disrupt certain notions or ideas.”

“Here I was, a single woman at 32; that was a different tone, it was a different voice,” she continued. “The work that I’ve done in this community has been to do (just) that — to disrupt.”

Growing up in Eau Claire, Lee noted that it was her life at home which fostered this message, despite the community at large still being heavily patriarchal. With her deep connections to family and strong examples of feminine agency — through ideas and collaboration — she felt her community’s leadership did not adequately reflect diverse voices, including her own.

This ultimately led to the creation of the Hmong Women Summit: The Authenticity Project, a conference born out of her role with the ECAHMAA and in partnership with Mai Vang, a fellow affirmative action organizer.

The recurring event, held in Eau Claire from 2015 through 2019, was designed to empower Hmong women and foster discussions of self-discovery, authentic leadership and provide a safe space for intergenerational growth in the home.

“Even if you are the ruler of your own home and the hearth — you are that first leader, you are teaching your children how to view the world,” Lee said. “It took me a long time to be able to be comfortable (enough) to say I am both (a) mainstream and Hmong community leader,” Lee said.

“I am both. There should not be any differentiation of that,” she added.

In 2023, Lee was recognized by her peers and the state — amongst other community organizers — as one of “Wisconsin’s 40 Most Influential Asian American Leaders.” This award is part of a continued pattern of accolades she has received over the years, including recognition from Central Wisconsin Hmong Young Professionals and the UW-Eau Claire Outstanding Woman of Color in Education Award.

Whether it be organizing affirmative action in academic and political realms, or providing safe spaces for local women and diverse voices, Lee’s enduring legacy will be defined by her efforts to create what her community has not imagined yet.

It is that constant desire for more — the recognition upon waking that there will always be more work ahead — that continues to inform her presence in the Chippewa Valley.

“It took me a long time to get here so that I can walk into a space and be fully me,” Lee said. “I hope that my legacy would be that I’ve created spaces and platforms for folks to show up and be their full selves — to articulate who they are, what their interests and their needs are.”