Hesung Chun Koh, Co-Founder, Chair, and President Emerita, East Rock Institute; Director Emerita, Research and Development and East Asian Studies, Human Relations Area Files (HRAF), Yale University, New Haven, CT

A native of Seoul, South Korea, Dr. Hesung Chun Koh emigrated to the U.S. as a 19 year-old scholarship student, eventually becoming a renowned scholar of comparative culture studies. She has dedicated her 50-plus year professional life to fostering understanding between East and West and helping to lay the groundwork for Korean studies in the U.S. In 1952, she co-founded East Rock Institute of New Haven, CT, the nation’s first institution dedicated to Korean and Korean Diaspora culture, with her late husband, Dr. Kwang Lim Koh, a former ambassador to the U.S. She served more than two decades as Director of Research and Development and East Asian Research at Yale’s HRAF (Human Relations Area Files) and taught for many years at Yale Law School and Yale College.

Dr. Koh is the author of several best-selling books, including Authentic Leadership in a Multicultural Society, Women’s Authentic Leadership, and Meaningful Ageing, and is an accomplished artist, holding several solo art exhibits in Asia and the U.S. She has received prestigious awards such as the Prime Minister’s Award, South Korea (1990), Connecticut Governor’s Award (2003), and the Order of Civil Merit, South Korea (2007). Dr. Koh earned a B.A. in economics/sociology from Dickinson College, M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology and anthropology from Boston University, and conducted post-doctoral work in Chinese studies at Harvard University and Georgetown University. She is the mother of six—including two former U.S. government officials, three deans, and four professors (three at Yale or Harvard)—grandmother of eleven, and great-grandmother of six.