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IOWA CITY
Saturday, September 28, 2024
9 to 10 a.m.
Maggie’s Farm Pizza
1308 Melrose
As part of these community visits, we will also be meeting with local government officials and other stakeholders for site visits to hear about climate and environmental initiatives around the state.
Chris Lee was first elected to the Hawaii State Legislature in 2008. He is an assistant majority leader in the Senate. He previously served as House Majority Whip and as the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
Senator Lee was named Best Policymaker in 2016 by the US Green Building Council Center for Green Schools and Green Schools Network. He authored legislation directing all public educational campuses to become energy net-zero facilities.
Chris is a 2015 recipient of the Transformational Achievement in Advancing Clean Energy Award presented by the Hawaii Energy Policy Forum. He passed a law making Hawaii the first state to require electricity sold by utilities to come from 100 percent renewable energy by 2045.
Senator Lee also authored the Hawaii Climate Adaptation Initiative, the nation’s first tax credit for organic food production, as well as legislation directing the state of Hawaii to eliminate fossil fuels for ground transportation and establish renewable transit alternatives. He currently serves as president of the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators.
He graduated from Oregon State University with a degree in political science and currently serves on the boards of several non-profit organizations, volunteering his time at local schools.
Chris also has a compelling personal story. Here is just part of it:
Born in Honolulu to a Japanese mother and haole father, Chris was given up by his biological parents, but adopted by a loving local couple - Gary, whose father worked in the shipyards at Pearl Harbor, and Connie, a public school teacher.
After graduating from Iolani School Chris pursued a passion for architecture. However, his path changed during an internship at the Hawaii State Capitol where he watched a few senior citizens and surfers organize their community and stop a development from taking over their neighborhood.
Inspired to help out, Chris began volunteering to help local families at non-profit organizations such as Breakthroughs for Youth at Risk and later the Hawaii Meth Project.
Like many of his peers struggling with Hawaii’s high cost of living, Chris worked multiple jobs at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Honolulu and Hawaiian Airlines. In 2008, a few community leaders approached Chris to run to represent the community in the Legislature. He recognized the chance to do something about the challenges the next generation of Hawaiians face. He chose to step up.
Please join us to hear the rest of this compelling story. Help welcome Chris to Iowa and work with us to elect leaders in our state who, like Chris, will look forward to the future, creating good public policy so generations to come will have a livable world to inhabit together.
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