Jae-Shik Oh is the Director of the Asia Institute in South Korea, and is a long-time leader of peace and justice movements throughout Asia. Hailed as the backbone of community organizing in Asia, Mr. Oh is a passionate human rights activist committed to inter-Korean reconciliation and humanitarian aid.

From 1994 to 1996, Mr. Oh served as the Director of the Social Education Institute of the Korea Christian Academy in Seoul. During this time, he established the Korea Chapter of the Global Action Plan, which launched at the Rio de Janeiro Summit on Environment in 1992. From 1997 to 2002, Mr. Oh served as World Vision Korea’s Executive Director. In that capacity, he organized high-impact relief initiatives and development projects for Korean children through the World Vision Partnership. Under his leadership, World Vision provided daily meals for over 60,000 children in North Korea.

Mr. Oh also served as the Korea Student Christian Federation’s first General Secretary, and was later appointed Secretary for the Urban Rural Mission of the Christian Conference of Asia. He also worked for the YMCA, the National Council of Churches in Korea, and the World Council of Churches in Geneva.

Mr. Oh has made considerable strides in building bridges between the estranged peoples of North and South Korea. He established a working group on peace education and spearheaded the development of materials and methodologies in the field of peace-building. In recognition of his significant contributions, Mr. Oh has received numerous honors and awards, including the Republic of Korea’s Order of Civil Merit – Moran Medal, as well as Yale University’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

Over the past four decades, Mr. Oh has worked to advance the ecumenical movement by organizing and leading numerous conferences, consultations, seminars, workshops and training programs. He currently teaches at Sunkonghoe University in Seoul and continues to work toward unification of North and South Korea by facilitating humanitarian aid.