Lily Hickman is an active leader in her communities, and has served on boards or committees for API Equality–LA, the Asian American Democratic Club, Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center (LYRIC), San Francisco Human Rights Commission, National Center for Lesbian Rights, Older Asian Sisters in Solidarity (OASIS), and United Educators of San Francisco. She spent 26 years as a California public school teacher.

Hickman also worked at SEIU-UHW as a leading member of the union’s Organizational Development Department, where she applied her experience in education to design and coordinate multi-day membership summits targeted at specific constituencies in the membership, such as young workers, Asian/Pacific Islanders, and Spanish speakers. She has mentored new field organizers, led teams of members at national conferences, and designed and coordinated the Justice Junction program highlighting systemic social, economic and racial injustice in the United States. Hickman earned her master’s degree in Special Education from San Francisco State University and has a Bachelor of Arts from UC Santa Barbara.