February 16, 2026

The May O. Lee Community Leadership Award recognizes one individual each year and provides the awardee’s chosen community organization an unrestricted grant of $1,000.

A co-founder of APIs RISE Fund and founder of Asian Resources, Inc., among multiple achievements, May O. Lee exemplifies community-driven leadership in the AANHPI community, across communities of color and throughout the Sacramento region. For four decades, she has led and forcefully advocated for equity, justice, representation, and resources—most often from the trenches while continuing to directly serve community members.

Each year, APIs RISE Fund awards one individual who exemplifies May’s spirit and commitment to community leadership, and additionally provides the awardee’s chosen community organization an unrestricted grant of $1,000.

Criteria:

1. Awardee must demonstrate leadership for three or more years advancing empowerment, civic engagement, leadership, philanthropy, arts and culture, and/or activism for progressive social change in the AANHPI community of the greater Sacramento region. 

2. Awardee must reside or work primarily in the greater Sacramento region.

3. The chosen organization or group must primarily serve AANHPI community/communities in the greater Sacramento region; for-profit entities are ineligible.

4. The funds must be provided to a federally-recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

5. Elected officials and current members of APIs Rise leadership/working group team do not qualify.

2024 May O. Lee Community Leadership Award

Cha Vang

“Our community will thrive when we uplift those who have been oppressed, and when we fight alongside others to oppose injustice and inequity,” Cha Vang.

2023 Inaugural May O. Lee Community Leadership Award

Tho Vinh Banh

Tho Vinh and others who know her would all agree she is a force to be reckoned with - not too different than what folks would say about May Lee. Tho Vinh is a lover of food, people and plants and loves to live life.