Christine Ahn is an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. She is the Founder and former Executive Director of Women Cross DMZ, a global movement of women mobilizing to end the Korean War and ensure women’s leadership in peace building. In 2015, she led 30 international women peacemakers across the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) from North Korea, which was the subject of the award-winning 2023 PBS documentary, Crossings.
During her tenure at Women Cross DMZ, Christine helped launch several feminist peace initiatives, including the Korea Peace Now! transnational feminist campaign with WILPF, the Nobel Women’s Initiative, and the South Korean Women’s Peace Movement for Peace, and the Feminist Peace Initiative, a collaboration with MADRE and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance. Christine has previously worked with the Global Fund for Women, Women of Color Resource Center, Institute for Food and Development Policy, and Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development.
In addition to speaking at major universities such as Harvard, Stanford and Northwestern, Christine has addressed the United Nations, Congress, Canadian Parliament, and the South Korean National Human Rights Commission and National Assembly. Her op-eds have appeared in major publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, and USA Today, and she is a regular contributor on BBC, CNN, Democracy Now!, and MSNBC with even a comedic appearance on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. She is the editor of Shafted: Free Trade and America’s Working Poor and a contributing author to The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex.
She has received multiple awards for her peace work, including the 2023 Certificate of Recognition from the Honolulu City Council, the 2022 Social Activist Award from the Nobel Peace Laureates, the 2020 Rotary International Peace Award, and the 2020 US Peace Prize from the US Peace Memorial Foundation for her bold activism to end the Korean War, heal the wounds from the war, and women’s leadership in peacebuilding. Ahn has a master’s degree in International Policy from Georgetown University and a certificate in ecological horticulture from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
