Susan Soonkeum Cox is Vice President of Policy and External Affairs at Holt International Children’s Services. Adopted from Korea, her life experience as an early international adoptee gives her a unique and personal perspective as an adoption and child welfare advocate. In 2002, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute presented Susan with an “Angel in Adoption” award.

A nationally recognized presenter on international adoption, Susan has been a guest on the “Today” show, “Good Morning America,” CNN, “NBC Nightly News,” C-Span’s “Washington Journal,” “Australia Today,” NPR and Voice of America, and has appeared in publications including Newsweek, TIME, Washington Post, New York Times, People, Oregonian, Baltimore Sun, L.A. Times, the Korea Times, Christian Science Monitor, Town & Country and The Wall Street Journal.

Susan has written for national and international publications including the Yale Journal of Law & Feminism; the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service; the American Academy of Pediatrics Journal; Portland State University; the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, and the Casey Family Foundation.

Susan served on the first White House Commission on Asian and Pacific Islanders; is a member of The Hague Special Commission on Intercountry Adoption; was a principal for the HHS-funded “Collaboration to AdoptUSKids” and she regularly testifies before Congress on issues related to child welfare, adoption and foreign affairs.

Susan was appointed by the Korean government as a spokesperson for Korean Adoption; was invited as a special guest to attend the 60th Anniversary of Korea; presented at the Korean political Forum in Seoul; and in 2002 was appointed as Honorary Citizen of Seoul by then Mayor Lee Myung Bak. In 2013 she was appointed by the Republic of South Korea as an Honorary Consul for the state of Oregon.

Her past and current board memberships include: Child Welfare League of America Adoption Advisory Committee; the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute Ethics Committee; Women’s Campaign International; International Concerns Committee for Children; the Center for Family Connections; North American Council on Adoptable Children; the USAID Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid; the White House Council on Women in the America’s, and the Joint Council on International Children’s Services. Susan was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities in 2010 by Northwest Christian University.

Susan was the founder of the International Gathering for Korean Adoptees in Washington D.C. and is the editor of “Voices from Another Place,” an anthology of Korean adoptees, and “More Voices,” an anthology of Asian adoptees.