Eugene E. Cho is an American

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

pastor. In July 2020, he became the third President and CEO of Bread for the World, a Christian advocacy organization urging U.S. decision makers to do all they can to pursue a world without hunger. Eugene is Co-Chair of the U.S. Nutrition CEO Council, the body of leaders from international NGOs encouraging the U.S. government, civil society, corporations, and other stakeholders to make global nutrition expertise into law and policy. He also serves on the board of Interaction, the largest U.S.-based alliance of INGOs and partners, and on the Coordinating Committee for the Circle of Protection, the coalition of church bodies and related ministries who have united across theological, sociological, and political differences to advocate for U.S. government policies that better address the needs of people experiencing poverty and vulnerability.

Biography

Cho was born in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, immigrated to the United States at age six, and grew up in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. Cho attended Lowell High School. After undergraduate studies at

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

, Cho completed a

Master of Divinity For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and ...

degree at

Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a Private university, private seminary, school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Establish ...

. Ordained in the

Evangelical Covenant Church The Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) is an evangelical denomination with Pietism, Pietist Lutheran roots. The Christian denomination, denomination has 129,015 members in 878 congregations and an average worship attendance of 219,000 people in th ...

, Cho and his wife Minhee founded Quest Church in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, Washington, serving as its senior pastor from 2001 to 2018. He also founded One Day's Wages in 2009, to alleviate extreme global poverty, where he still serves as Founder and Visionary. In March 2020, Cho was elected to become the next president of the Christian advocacy group Bread for the World and assumed his post in July 2020. Eugene has been recognized by the Department of Homeland Security as an Outstanding American by Choice, which was established to recognize “the significant contributions and achievements of naturalized U.S. citizens.”

Works

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Notes

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American clergy 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century evangelicals American Evangelical writers American male non-fiction writers American people of Korean descent American Protestant religious leaders American religious writers Princeton Theological Seminary alumni University of California, Davis alumni {{US-Christian-clergy-stub