Social Impact Heroes Helping Our Planet: Why & How Ann Lee Of CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort) Is Helping To Change Our World
An Interview With Martita Mestey
You don’t have to have everything figured out before acting. You can take a small step, learn from that step, and iterate in a more informed and refined direction.
As a part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ann Lee, the CEO and Co-Founder of CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort).
Ann Lee has 20 years of experience managing large-scale humanitarian response and sustainable development programming across a variety of sectors, including: emergency relief, community upgrading and infrastructure, livelihoods and economic growth, and local governance. Alongside Sean Penn, Ms. Lee co-founded the global humanitarian relief organization CORE (formerly J/P HRO, est. 2010) in 2019. During her tenure as CEO, she has overseen the organization’s successful transition into an international response and resilience-building NGO, responding to crises globally and serving the most vulnerable communities.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?
I had two very hardworking parents who immigrated to the United States from Korea. We moved to a very wonderful neighborhood with a great school system, where I lived in a home with my three other siblings and three cousins, uncle and aunt, parents, and grandparents. It was a riotous time with very little parental supervision!
You are currently leading a social impact organization that is making a difference for our planet. Can you tell us a bit about what you and your organization are trying to change in our world today?
Often, humanitarian crisis following natural disasters or conflict, arise from underlying, protracted inequality and marginalization. At CORE, we feel that a disaster opens opportunity to make changes that would normally take generations to make. We hope that we can help strengthen the most vulnerable communities from the inside out by working alongside local leaders to earn trust and empower them with the resources they need.
CORE was conceived out of a need to respond swiftly to disasters and to empower the most vulnerable communities. What began as J/P HRO following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, CORE has evolved into a global relief organization responding to the conflict in Ukraine, floods in Pakistan, the earthquake in Turkey, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the migrant crisis at the US-Mexico border, among many more disasters.
We’re a nimble organization that quickly adapts to communities’ needs as they evolve. Our efforts are fueled by local hands, we partner and hire locally, and work closely through and with local leaders, organizations, governments, and other stakeholders to bring equitable relief directly to those who need it most.
While addressing immediate needs following a disaster, we also recognize that we need to address root causes of vulnerability with targeted relief. Focusing on holistic, sustainable solutions, we build through existing systems that better prepare communities for crisis. Humanity will always face disasters, particularly as climate change increases the frequency of catastrophic hurricanes, floods, and wildfires. As the wealth gap continues to widen globally, the population vulnerable to disaster is as high as ever, and we see too often that low-income communities of color are hit hardest. CORE envisions a more equitable world in which underserved communities are prepared and can effectively respond to crisis from within.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
My mother and both grandmothers were extremely strong and dedicated to selflessness and helping others. My maternal grandmother was an activist in Korea, and in coming to America, she organized her community of elderly friends to learn how to navigate their new country, learn how to swim, learn English, and navigate public transportation. My mother and paternal grandmother raised us to help people without judgement, and treat others like family. We were instilled with a sense of service.
Many of us have ideas, dreams, and passions, but never manifest them. They don’t get up and just do it. But you did. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were actually going to step up and do it? What was that final trigger?
In 2001, I was living in downtown New York. In the early morning of September 11, after listening to incessant sirens on my street, I went to the rooftop to see what was happening, only to witness the second of the twin towers fall. That completely changed my life’s trajectory. Living in New York and watching the second tower fall with my own eyes changed my determination to serve humanity and prevent future crises. Soon after, I went to grad school to join the foreign service, and understand how to prevent conflicts.
Many people don’t know the steps to take to start a new organization. What are some of the things or steps you took to get your project started?
As Sean and I were establishing CORE (formerly known as J/P HRO), we wanted to pave a different path in frontline relief efforts and community impact. The humanitarian system is outdated and unfit for the modern complex crises that occur. For maximum impact, groups on the ground need to work from within communities. It takes a whole lot of balancing to ensure the long-term impacts of emergency actions don’t hinder recovery. This happens when emergency actions cause market failures by competing with the local economy or hinder long-term recovery of institutions and systems by providing temporary relief for too long.
One example of this is after the Haiti earthquake in 2010, when many organizations provided free health care and water services. After a year, the local private hospitals and private water businesses could not compete with free services and were shut down, which had long-term consequences and created a new set of problems. As humanitarians, we need to do no harm.
Another example: during our COVID-19 relief effort, the majority of our funding came from the private sector. The public sector can be slow and often cannot pivot quickly to adapt to dynamics on the ground. However, we know that each sector has a strong role to play for recovery to happen in a way that builds something better and stronger in the wake of a crisis.
The other step you need to take in building a longstanding organization is ensuring the team behind the project is committed, passionate, and ready to act. CORE isn’t possible without the team behind it — locally, nationally, and globally, our staff and volunteers are at the ready to activate the moment a crisis occurs.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
The most inspirational experience I have had with CORE has been in Haiti. In 2018, a massive hurricane barreled through southern Haiti, destroying thousands of homes and the major commerce cities. Our entire Haitian team responded, setting up debris removal and roof repair, and providing immediate shelter and medical care. Our team leads felt it was their defining moment. When they were participating in the coordination meetings with local mayors and government leads, the government representatives expressed their pride and gratitude to see a Haitian-led team responding to the communities’ needs. It brought tears to our most seasoned responders in Haiti.
It has been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Do you have a story about a humorous mistake that you made when you were first starting and the lesson you learned from that?
An early mistake I learned from happened after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. I was working in the poorest community slum in Port-au-Prince, Ravine Pintade. Over 70% of homes were destroyed or damaged, and the rubble was piled two stories high, choking the streets. Prior to the earthquake, this community, built on the side of a ravine, suffered from constant flooding and landslides, and had insufficient access to water and sanitation. The team and I were mapping homes to create an upgraded community neighborhood plan through charrettes with the community.
We hired a team of engineers, who were experts in mapping. It took us a month to realize that they could not work outside of their understanding of formal spaces. They could not figure out the mounds of rubble and where property lines started and ended, and they submitted a strange map of trees in the slum. Though there are no land titles, or existing parcel maps, there is informal law and rule of law at the community level. We threw away the month and the map, and hired community members, with whom we went street to street mapping out each house and structure to the inch to create an ownership map.
The lesson was this: though they may not be “written” or recorded, informal settlements have formal structures and law. Working with the community to respect and understand these structures and institutions is the only thing that allowed us to rebuild the community, safer, healthier, and with strong structures, drainage, green spaces, and footpaths.
None of us can be successful without some help along the way. Did you have mentors or cheerleaders who helped you to succeed? Can you tell us a story about their influence?
I am standing on the shoulders of giants. The mentors that I have are as important as what Adam Grant calls your informal network of challengers. These are the people that can tell you directly and constructively when you’re wrong, when they disagree. Having a diversity of opinions to balance out your perspective is so critically important. I feel that my mentors, colleagues, friends, and family play these roles to allow me to feel supported and unconditionally loved, but also challenged and pushed.
Are there three things the community, society, or politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
As we saw in COVID, there are some crises that are just too big for any one sector, even the federal government, to handle. It is so important for communities, the private sector and government to be working together. More coordination, and more of a demand-driven approach to providing assistance is needed. Currently, there is a supply-driven model that leaves out the most marginalized and vulnerable communities.
What are your “3 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
- You don’t have to have everything figured out before acting. You can take a small step, learn from that step, and iterate in a more informed and refined direction.
- Creating a culture in your team is so important, and hard skills are secondary to the human emotional intelligence that is important to our teams and in working with others in affected communities.
- Mental health and self-care is so critically important in our work. Connecting with friends and family and having a network that grounds you is as important as responding to communities in crises.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
COVID has underlined the interconnectedness of us as individuals. What happens far from us affects us in sometimes drastic ways. Doing something to help someone, and to be part of the larger fabric of the interconnectedness of the world is so critically important not just for our souls, but for the survival of our planet.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I would say that the best life lesson quote is: “Just stfu, pick up the shovel and start digging.”
It is so easy to get overwhelmed by the immensity of need in the world today. Even at the start of COVID, it was all so new and scary. There were moments before we started responding when I said to myself, ‘Who am I to do something in this scary and foreign situation? What could we possibly do that would move the needle? We don’t have the experience, or I’m sure there are experts that know better than I…’
But then I remembered the work Sean and I did after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Everyone had said it would take over 30 years to remove the debris that was choking the city from recovering, and that Haitians would have to live within the rubble-filled capital city for the foreseeable future. Instead of getting overwhelmed and hopeless, Sean and I both, with different organizations at the time, blocked out the noise, and started removing rubble from as many streets, neighborhoods, and communities as we could. We just shut up and started shoveling.
We fundamentally changed the city by doing so, and so many others joined in, so much so that the debris was cleared from the city not over decades, but over years. Using that as a guidepost, jumping into responding to COVID was an imperative. Despite the overwhelming need, we just started testing, one person at a time, sharing information on how to do so with others, eventually testing nearly 7 million people globally, and vaccinating nearly 3 million.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I would love to have a private breakfast with Michelle Obama. She is one of the strongest people I have ever seen, and despite relentless unwarranted attacks, she responds with love and grace.
How can our readers follow you online?
Please follow CORE on social to stay updated on the latest about our programs, global crisis responses, and how you can help empower communities worldwide; Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and visit our website at COREresponse.org.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
Social Impact Heroes Helping Our Planet: Why & How Ann Lee Of CORE (Community Organized Relief… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.