Jean H. Lee is the East-West Center’s inaugural Presidential Chair. Jean is a policy analyst and veteran foreign correspondent who reported from across Asia, the Pacific, Africa, Europe and North America before transitioning to research and policy analysis. As Presidential Chair, she works closely with the President of East-West Center to lead interdisciplinary initiatives that advance the Center’s strategic goals.

As a journalist, Jean was the first American reporter to join the Pyongyang foreign press corps in North Korea in 2011. In 2012, she opened the Associated Press news agency’s Pyongyang bureau, the first and only US news bureau in North Korea. Her work in North Korea from 2008 to 2017 included nearly three years working alongside North Korean staff and colleagues in Pyongyang on assignments that took her across the closed nation to visit farms, factories, schools, military academies and homes.

In 2015, Jean joined the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, as a scholar and later served as director of the institute’s Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy. She joined East-West Center as a POSCO Visiting Fellow in 2023 and was appointed Presidential Chair in 2025. She also serves as a non-resident fellow at the European Centre for North Korean Studies at the University of Vienna.

In 2023, she was invited to testify before Congress about North Korea’s illicit financing campaign. Jean also has shared her North Korea experience and analysis as a featured speaker at the Aspen Security Forum, SXSW, the Milken Institute Global Conference, and at universities and think tanks around the world. She has served as a CNN contributor, and has appeared as a guest on CBS’ Face the Nation, PBS Newshour, NBC, BBC and NPR, among other outlets. She publishes commentary in The New York Times and elsewhere, and can be seen in the National Geographic documentary series “Inside North Korea” as well the “Dictator’s Playbook” on PBS and “How to Become a Tyrant” on Netflix.

Jean is a native of Minneapolis who earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Columbia University. She is a member of the Council of Korean Americans, the National Committee on North Korea, the Pacific Council on International Policy, and the Asian American Journalists Association. She also served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on the Korean Peninsula.

Jean currently co-hosts the acclaimed Lazarus Heist podcast about North Korean hackers for the BBC World Service. Read or view highlights of her work on her website, www.jhleemedia.com.

The newly established Presidential Chair, funded through the Charles Morrison Endowed Fund, was created in recognition of former EWC President Charles Morrison’s exceptional service to the East-West Center and underscores EWC’s commitment to recruiting and retaining exceptional leaders who will drive transformative discoveries and inspire innovative energy across the Center’s community.