Soon-Young Yoon is the UN representative for the International Alliance of Women. In 2020, she founded and is co-director of the Cities for CEDAW History and Futures Project. She was a Social Development officer for UNICEF in the Southeast Asia office, Social Scientist at WHO/SEARO in New Delhi and senior consultant for the Tobacco Free Initiative at the WHO. In 1998, she helped organize the international conference on Women and Tobacco in Kobe, Japan and co-edited the WHO monograph on Gender, Women and the Tobacco Epidemic with Jonathan Samet. Yoon received her A.B. in French literature with honors and Ph.D. in anthropology from the U of Michigan. She is married to Richard M. Smith, former Editor-in-Chief and President of Newsweek and current President of the Pinkerton Foundation.