Women Cross DMZ Announces Cathi Choi as New Co-Director
July 1, 2024
Posted in: Press Releases
As the nation’s leading feminist organization working to advance peace in Korea, Women Cross DMZ is pleased to announce that effective July 1, 2024, Cathi Choi will become the Co-Director of Women Cross DMZ, along with Founder and Co-Director Christine Ahn. Together, they will oversee the organization’s core work of education, organizing, and advocacy; manage staff, consultants, and volunteers; and ensure the fiscal health and strength of the organization.
Cathi previously served as the Director of Policy and Advocacy at Women Cross DMZ, a position she has held since March 2023. In that role, Cathi spearheaded nationwide efforts to advocate for Korea peace, including organizing hundreds of grassroots members across the United States and leading coalitions with legislative advocates, policy analysts, humanitarian leaders, and legal experts to enact progressive legislation and policy change. She is a key leader of the Korea Peace Now! Grassroots Network, organizing webinars on topics such as the environmental destruction of U.S. military bases in Korea, and was instrumental in organizing “Korea Peace Action: National Mobilization to End the Korean War,” which brought together more than 500 people in Washington, DC, on the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice to call for peace.
Cathi has been particularly passionate about and effective in bringing in younger activists to usher in the next generation of the Korea peace movement. For the Korea Peace Action, she organized a cohort of “30 under 30” Korea peace activists from diverse backgrounds — writers, organizers, doctors, healers, activists, students, academics, artists, and others — to galvanize their communities to end the Korean War.
“We are beyond excited to have Cathi step up to be Co-Director of Women Cross DMZ,” said Aiyoung Choi, Board Chair of Women Cross DMZ. “Together, Cathi and Christine will usher in the next generation of visionary young leaders to carry forward the work for peace and healing in our ancestral homeland. Blessed with deep commitment, talent, and energy, they will co-lead to build and expand our visibility and urgent call for peace in Korea.”
“As a feminist organization dedicated to cultivating the next generation of Korea peace activists, I am thrilled to have Cathi as my co-captain,” said Christine Ahn, founder and Executive Director of Women Cross DMZ. “In the three years that we have worked closely together, Cathi has shown her deep commitment and ability to lead the organization’s next stage of growth and impact. We couldn’t be luckier to have her with us.”
“As an attorney and member of a divided family, I am moved to build a better world and lasting peace on the Korean peninsula, foster intergenerational healing, and advocate for policies for a world free from militarism for all people and our planet,” said Cathi Choi, Co-Director of Women Cross DMZ. “I am humbled by the generations of peace activism that have built Women Cross DMZ’s vision and impact, and I have also witnessed the power of the rising generation of Korea peace activists eager to continue the work. I am excited to bridge these worlds and co-lead with Christine into the next era for the organization.”
Before joining Women Cross DMZ, Cathi worked at a civil rights law firm in Los Angeles and clerked for Judge Denny Chin in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. She received a JD from Harvard Law School, completed the Dual Degree International History Program at Columbia University and the London School of Economics, and obtained her BA from Columbia University. She serves as Program Committee Co-Chair for GYOPO, a collective of diasporic Korean cultural producers and arts professionals. Her writing has been published in the Los Angeles Times, YES! Magazine, Foreign Policy In Focus, Journal of Policy History, and the Asian Pacific American Law Journal.