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Catherine O'Neill

Catherine O’Neill founded the Women’s Refugee Commission in 1989, along with Liv Ullmann and other women at the forefront of refugee issues. As founder and chair of the board, she used her passion to attract a large number of prominent women from the media, academia and the humanitarian community to the Women’s Refugee Commission. A tireless advocate, she traveled to refugee settings around the world to listen to refugee women and children about their needs. On Capitol Hill, at the United Nations, in the pages of major newspapers and on radio and TV, she encouraged decision-makers and humanitarian workers to change policies and practice to ensure that refugee women, children and adolescents got their due.

In 1999, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed Catherine as director of the UN Information Center in Washington, D.C. Catherine has founded several organizations and sat on the boards of many organizations. She is married to journalist Richard Reeves, and has three children.