Promise Lee
Rev. Dr. Promise Y. Lee is a life-long resident of Colorado Springs, and founder and Senior Pastor of Relevant Word Ministries (RWM), located in the Hillside neighborhood. As a pastor, professor, speaker, author, entrepreneur, and community advocate Lee has worked tirelessly as grassroots organizer for over four decades and is decorated with many accomplishments.
Motivated by his own journey to redemption after landing a prison sentence at age 15, documented in his book Pardoned: A Judicial Memoir, he has inspired millions with hope across the globe. Lee’s work has gained national attention earning the Hillside Neighborhood Association the National Civiv League's All-America City Award (the first neighborhood to do so) for its work in anti-crime programs that addressed blight, sex work, and gang activity decreasing neighborhood violence and property crimes. His work is also recognized in academia in 2012, he was bestowed with an honorary doctorate from the Urban Institute of Denver.
Lee’s heart is drawn to some of the most vulnerable in society and utilizes his diverse gifts to galvanize people from all walks of life to care and join in the fight to support those who would otherwise be overlooked. Since 2017, Lee has served as the Executive Director of SEATO (Southeast Access to Opportunity), a Colorado Springs-based non-profit mentorship program for vulnerable youth. SEATO is based on principles of reflection, realization, redefinition, responsibility, and reinvestment and threads universal principles from many diverse customs and weaves together rites of passage that help youth to mark their transition from one phase of life to another.
As a bold and fierce advocate, in 2019 when 19 yr old De’Von Bailey was shot and killed by the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) Lee led groups of ordinary people to realize their leadership. Working through the BLM movement of 2020, citizens from different ethnic, socio-economic, and gender backgrounds fearlessly flooded the streets in protest, occupying space in front of the police stations, and in city hall ultimately catapulting officer accountability into law with SB-217, the first of its kind in the nation.
As an obsessed and avid lover of dogs, you will find Lee in his spare time enjoying dog training or keeping up with his 8 children and 20 grandchildren.
An avid lover of dogs, you can find Lee groping for spare moments to satisfy his obsession of analyzing and training dogs.