Soon-Young Yoon

Soon-Young Yoon is a Korean-American advocate for women's human rights and author of "Citizen of the World -- Soon-Young and the UN". She currently serves as a United Nations representative of the International Alliance of Women and Chair of the Board, Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO),

Biography[]

She was born in Pyongyang, Korea, grew up in Ann Arbor and holds a bachelor's degree with honors in French literature and a PhD in anthropology from the University of Michigan. She has worked with UNICEF in Southeast Asia and the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia in New Delhi. She is a board member of the International Advisory Council at the Harvard AIDS Initiative, Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) and the International Foundation for Ewha Womans University. She works as a consultant for the WHO on women and tobacco issues.^[1] She is the main representative of the International Alliance of Women to the United Nations ECOSOC, and in that capacity was also Chair of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, New York from 2011 to 2015. She is co-editor with Jonathan Samet of the WHO monograph, "Gender, Women and the Tobacco Epidemic and former columnist for the EarthTimes newspaper. She has published essays about her life, working with the UN and feminist views on global issues in her book, "Citizen of the World--Soon-Young and the UN" (published by Ewha Womans University Press, August 2021). In 2021, she was appointed to the Advisory Board on Gender Equality of the UN President of the 76th General Assembly, H. E. Ambassador Abdulla Shahid of the Maldives.

She is married to Richard Mills Smith, former Editor-in-Chief, CEO and Chairman of Newsweek,^[2] and President of the Pinkerton Foundation.

Publications[]

• "Citizen of the World--Soon-Young and the UN" - Published by Ewha Womans University Press, August 2021
• Online book: "Citizen of the World-Soon-Young and the UN" www.soon-young.life
• Jonathan M. Samet and Soon-Young Yoon (eds.), Gender, women, and the tobacco epidemic, World Health Organization, 2010, ISBN 978 92 4 159951 1
• TEDx talk on global citizenship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXXTayRnS_Q

References[]