After graduating from UMass, Lai Ying became the Lead Community Organizer for the Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC) in Boston, a community-based nonprofit organization devoted to serving the Asian American community of greater Boston—and especially to preserving and revitalizing Boston's Chinatown.
Most of her organizing focused on a development campaign that advocated the return of a "Big Dig" parcel to Chinatown for maximum community development. As part of that work, she conceived, designed, and implemented the Chinatown Civic Participation Development Kit. This Kit, used by ten teachers in an English-as-a-second-language curriculum for over 150 adult students, introduced the history of Boston's Chinatown and its urban development and created ways for the students to become involved in the community campaign to reclaim the land from the "Big Dig" project.
After working at the ACDC for two years, she took her present job at the Chinese Historical Society of New England, an organization dedicated to documenting, preserving, and promoting the history and legacy of Chinese immigration in New England. She has also written for and edited the Journal of Community Power Building and has published book reviews in the Asian American Writers' Workshop magazine, Ten. View her LinkedIn profile to learn more or to connect with her.