Betty Lee Sung

In 2001, Sung and Thomas Tam co-founded CUNY's Asian American / Asian Research Institute (AAARI), a university-wide scholarly research and resource center on policies and issues that affect Asians and Asian Americans. In 2017, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS).

In 1994, Sung completed a database of the Chinese immigrant records in the New York Region National Archives with grants from the Chiang Ching Kuo Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The database was featured by the New York Times, and enables scholars to conduct genealogical research and recreate the early history of Chinese immigrants in New York.

After publishing Mountain of Gold, Sung was invited to join the Asian American Studies program at The City College of New York in 1970, where she advanced to the Chair of the Department of Asian Studies. She held this position until her retirement in 1992.

On February 22, 1948 she married Hsi Yuan Sung, but they divorced in 1966. Her second married to Charles Chung took place on July 23, 1972. He filed a Petition for Dissolution of that marriage in California Superior Court in 2013. She has four children from her first marriage.

Sung graduated with a B.A. in Economics from the University of Illinois in 1948. In 1968, she earned an MLS from Queens College of the City University of New York. In 1982, she earned a PhD from the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York.

Betty Lee Sung (born October 3, 1924) is an American activist, author, and professor emeritus of City University of New York (CUNY). As a scholar of Asian American studies, her several publications on Asian American race issues have been recognized as an influential force in advancing the rights of Asian Americans and immigrants in the United States. Sung holds an honorary doctorate from the State University of New York Old Westbury.