“I was so angry because when she went missing, and I was searching and calling. It felt like we weren’t heard,” Lee said.

Turning pain into power, Lee found a seat at the table as a member of a Minnesota Task Force that’s examining the disparities surrounding missing and murdered Black women.

“This task force can help provide legislation, some directives and the community on what we need,” Lee said.

“We are not honored. We have historically been seen as just dismissible," she said. "We’ve been historically seen as property."

Lee said the Minnesota task force has the potential to turn the tide and make waves of change.

“This is just the blueprint and it’s long overdue,” Lee said. “I’m more than excited to be able to bring light and hope that Minnesota can be a pillar for the nation to be able to work towards this in the future.”

– Brittany Ermon, KSTP Channel 5 News

"We can work towards a community intervention model that really serves all families for generations so that the office doesn't have to be a forever office," Lee says. "We can end this epidemic.”

– Dana Ferguson, MPR

"No. We are the experts on our family, we know something is wrong," says Lee. 

–Multiple Sources