Melanie Kirkpatrick is a writer-journalist based in Connecticut and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. She contributes reviews and commentary to various publications, including the opinion pages of The Wall Street Journal, for which she worked from 1980 until mid-2009. Her book, Escape from North Korea: The Untold Story of Asia’s Underground Railroad, is published by Encounter Books.

At The Wall Street Journal, Melanie was deputy editor of the editorial page from 2006-2009 and a longtime member of the editorial board. As a deputy editor, she was responsible for the editorial page’s coverage of international issues and oversaw the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal in Asia and Europe, the Far Eastern Economic Review and the U.S. columnists on foreign affairs. She wrote editorials and op-ed articles on foreign affairs.

Melanie spent 10 years in Asia, working for The Wall Street Journal Asia in Hong Kong and, prior to that, for a division of Time-Life Books in Tokyo. She received the 2001 Mary Morgan Hewett Award for Women in Journalism from the Friends of the East-West Center in Honolulu. The annual award recognizes a journalist who has demonstrated commitment, hard work and expanding influence throughout her career.

She received a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a master’s degree in English from the University of Toronto. She was a Gannett Newspaper Foundation Fellow in Asian studies at the University of Hawaii. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; a trustee of Princeton in Asia, an internship program in Asia for young graduates of American universities; and a director of the America for Bulgaria Foundation.

Ms. Kirkpatrick is married to Jack David, who is a senior fellow and trustee of the Hudson Institute.

Steven Kim is the founder of 318 Partners, a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to rescuing trafficked women in China. It’s named after Article 318 of the Chinese criminal code, the law under which Kim was arrested in September 2003 for trying to send nine North Korean refugees to South Korea through Vietnam. Mr. Kim is also the author of Fearless Passage, an autobiography about his time working with North Korean refugees in China.