Lydia Lowe is the Director of the new Chinatown Community Land Trust in Boston, and previously led the Chinese Progressive Association, a grassroots community civil rights organization, for 30 years. The Chinatown Community Land Trust works for development without displacement through community control of the land, permanent affordability, and shared neighborhood spaces. CCLT is pursuing creative strategies in its quest to acquire land within a hot urban market.

Lydia helped launch the first community-based immigrant worker center in the New England region, led organizing efforts to preserve over 1500 units of affordable housing, implemented a $1.5 million capital campaign to purchase a permanent organizing space, and worked to secure bilingual ballots for Chinese and Vietnamese voters in Boston. She serves on Boston Mayor Marty Walsh's Housing Advisory Task Force and is a member of the Right to the City/Homes for All Campaign's Our Homes Our Land Committee. She is a second-generation Chinese American whose parents came from mainland China and the mother of two young women.