Sharon Cohn Wu

Sharon Cohn Wu serves as Senior Vice President of Structural Transformation for International Justice Mission (IJM). IJM is an international human rights agency that rescues victims of violence, sexual exploitation, slavery and oppression. Based on referrals of abuse received from relief and development organizations, IJM conducts professional investigations of the abuses and mobilizes intervention on behalf of the victims.

Mrs. Cohn Wu received her B.A. with Honors from University of Virginia, and her J.D. from Harvard Law School, cum laude. Following graduation, Mrs. Cohn Wu served as a judicial clerk for Hon. Richard Williams, Eastern District of Virginia.

Until October 2001, Mrs. Cohn Wu was an associate with Arnold & Porter in Washington, DC, representing private and governmental entities in litigation and international trade matters. Mrs. Cohn Wu also represented asylum candidates in hearings before the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Mrs. Cohn Wu currently directs IJM's operations in Africa, Latin America, South Asia and Southeast Asia, developing intervention strategies and advocating with local and national authorities. Mrs. Cohn Wu was honored by President George W. Bush as a woman making a difference in the world for her work on behalf of victims of sex trafficking. She regularly briefs government officials in the U.S. and abroad regarding trafficking issues and has provided interviews for The New York Times Magazine, Forbes, Fox News, NBC Dateline and BBC World among other numerous media outlets. Mrs. Cohn Wu testified before a Senate subcommittee on the domestic impact of international sex trafficking and before a House subcommittee on sex trafficking in South Asia. Her efforts have resulted in the release of children in the Philippines, Thailand, India, Cote d'Ivoire and Cambodia.