Womens’ Universities have emerged as premier institutions in higher education, amplifying womens’ voices from diverse backgrounds and perspectives. In the fourth installation of our Womens’ Leadership Series, please join us at The Korea Society to hear from Dr. Eun Mee Kim, President of Ewha Womans University in Seoul, and Dr. Sian Leah Beilock, President of Barnard College in New York City. They will share their experiences as presidents of two eminent women’s colleges with long traditions in providing the highest-quality of liberal arts education, and they will also share their visions as thought leaders in new fields, new ideas and new technologies emerging in higher education in Korea and the U.S.
The conversation will be moderated by Ambassador Kathleen Stephens, former U.S. Ambassador to Korea and Korea Society Board Chair. Thomas Byrne, President and CEO of The Korea Society will deliver special welcoming remarks.
Women in Higher Education: A Discussion with Dr. Eun Mee Kim & Dr. Sian Leah Beilock
Tuesday, March 22, 2022 | 8 AM (EDT)
The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Eun Mee Kim, Ph.D.
President
Professor, Graduate School of International Studies
Ewha Womans University
Professor Eun Mee Kim is the 17th President of Ewha Womans University. She is Professor in the Graduate School of International Studies, Director of the Ewha Global Health Institute for Girls and Women, former Dean of the Graduate School, former Dean of the Graduate School of International Studies, and former Director of the Institute for Development and Human Security at Ewha Womans University. She was appointed by the UN Secretary General in December 2016 to serve as one of the fifteen Independent Group of Scientists to work on the Global Sustainable Development Report 2019, which was presented to the UN Secretary General and heads of member states at the UN General Assembly in September 2019. She served as President of the Korea Association of International Development and Cooperation (2011, 2012). She has served on the Committee for International Development Cooperation under the Prime Minister’s Office, the Policy Advisory Committee for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. In 2012, she received the Service Merit Medal from the Republic of Korea for her contributions to the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan. In 2013, she received the first research grant to a university in South Korea from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on her research, “Advocacy for Korean Engagement in Global Health and Development.” In 2016, and again in 2019, she received a research grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for “Korea Global Health Strategy.” She received the Chang-Lin Tien Distinguished Leadership Award from the Asia Foundation in 2021. She was appointed as the Vice-Chairperson of the Korean National Commission for UNESCO in May 2021, and the Chairperson of the 5th Science and Technology Basic Plan (2023~2027) Committee of the Republic of Korea in December 2021.
Sian Leah Beilock, Ph.D.
President
Barnard College
Sian Leah Beilock began her tenure as Barnard College president in July 2017 after spending 12 years at the University of Chicago, where she served on the faculty as the Stella M. Rowley Professor of Psychology, executive vice provost, and an officer of the university. Her work as a cognitive scientist revolves around performance anxiety and reveals simple psychological strategies that can be used to ensure success in everything from test-taking and public speaking to athletics and job interviews. In 2010, she wrote the critically acclaimed book Choke, and in 2015, How the Body Knows Its Mind. In 2017, she won the Troland Award from the National Academy of Sciences, and her recent TED talk has been viewed more than 2.5 million times.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR:
Amb. Kathleen Stephens
Chair, Board of Directors, The Korea Society
President & CEO, Korea Economic Institute
Ambassador (ret.) Kathleen Stephens is a former American diplomat. She was U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea 2008-2011. She is currently Board Chair of The Korea Society and President & CEO of the Korea Economic Institute. Korea has been a leitmotif of Ambassador Stephens’ life and career since she served in rural Korea as a Peace Corps volunteer and trainer, 1975-1977. She was in Korea 1983-1989, first as a political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul reporting on Korea’s domestic political and human rights scene, and later leading the U.S. Consulate in Busan. Other overseas assignments included postings to China, former Yugoslavia, Portugal, Northern Ireland, where she was U.S. Consul General in Belfast during the negotiations culminating in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, and India, where she was U.S. Charge ‘d Affaires (2014-2015). Ambassador Stephens also served in a number of policy positions in Washington at the Department of State and the White House. These included acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs (2012), Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs (2005-2007), Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs (2003-2005), and National Security Council Director for European Affairs at the Clinton White House. Stephens was William J. Perry Fellow for Korea at Stanford University 2015-2018. She is a Mansfield Foundation Distinguished Fellow, Pacific Century Institute board chairman, vice-chair of the board of trustees for The Asia Foundation, and board chair of The Korea Society. She has been President and CEO of the Korea Economic Institute of America since September 2018, based in Washington, DC.
