Soon-Young Yoon

Soon-Young Yoon

Soon-Young Yoon is the NY representative for the International Alliance of Women to the UN and former Chair of the NGO CSW/NY that convenes the NGO Forum at the UN Commission on the Status of Women meetings. She is the author of “Citizen of the World:Soon-Young and the UN.” In 2021, she was appointed to the Council on Gender Equality convened by H. E. Ambassador, Abdhulla Shahid, the President of the 76th UN General Assembly. In 2020, she founded and is currently co-director of the Cities for CEDAW History and Futures Project. She was a Social Development officer for UNICEF in the Southeast Asia office as well as the Social Scientist at WHO/SEARO in New Delhi. As a Fulbright scholar, she taught at Ewha Womans University during which the school established the first women’s studies program in Asia.

A former columnist for the EarthTimes newspaper, she is co-editor with Dr Jonathan Samet of the WHO monograph, “Gender, Women, and the Tobacco Epidemic.” Yoon received her A.B. in French literature with honors, a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Michigan. She is married to Richard M. Smith, former Editor-in-Chief and President of Newsweek and current President of the Pinkerton Foundation.