Judy Korn’s portrait for download
Press photo of Judy Korn for download
Press photo of Judy Korn and Thomas Mücke for download
Image credit: ©Violence Prevention Network/FotoPloetz
Judy Korn holds a degree in Educational Science and is the founder and Managing Director of Violence Prevention Network gGmbH. Since the age of fourteen, Judy Korn has been combating right-wing extremism and tackling prejudice-motivated violence, following an incident in which her friends were beaten up by neo-Nazis. She succeeded in curbing violence in her neighbourhood in northern Berlin and in fostering peaceful coexistence amongst the various youth groups. These projects with young people prone to violence showed Judy Korn that people have the potential to change.
In 2003, she left the civil service to put her own ideals into practice by founding Violence Prevention Network and to play a key role in shaping society. “We talk to extremists – not about them.” – this is the guiding principle under which the civil society organisation has been carrying out its work since 2004, with over 130 staff members nationwide. Whilst right-wing extremism was initially the main focus of its work, Violence Prevention Network has also been active in the field of Islamist extremism since 2007. In the same year, Judy Korn was named an Ashoka Fellow in recognition of her innovative and far-reaching approaches to solving a social problem permanently and on a large scale. Until 2010, Judy Korn spent almost 20 years working in various capacities as a teacher, mediator and lecturer, and designed and ran events for a range of institutions (e. g. Alice-Salomon-Fachhochschule Berlin, Berliner Fußballverband, etc.). She is the founder and managing partner of VPN Wissenschaftsgesellschaft mbH, as well as the founder and managing director of modus | zad – Centre for Applied Deradicalisation Research gGmbH. The success of the approaches developed by her organisation was made possible in large part by Judy Korn’s persistent advocacy for a collaborative approach. “It is only through the continuous exchange of knowledge and expertise between the professional groups involved that we can continually adapt our approaches to the ever-changing demands of evolving extremist scenes,” is one of Judy Korn’s guiding principles.
From 2011 to 2024, she was actively involved in the implementation of the European Commission’s Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN). She was a member of the Steering Committee, as well as chair of the EXIT Working Group, and acts as an expert adviser to various national and international organisations in the field of radicalisation prevention and deradicalisation. From 2020 to 2024, she was Quality Manager for RAN Practitioners and has been a member of TikTok’s European Safety Advisory Council since 2021. From 2022 to 2026, Judy Korn represented Violence Prevention Network on the Independent Advisory Committee of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT). She is the founder and a board member of Violence Prevention Network USA Inc. in Pittsburgh. In 2025, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier awarded Judy Korn, as one of the two founders of the Violence Prevention Network, the Federal Order of Merit.
Honours/Awards:
2007: Honoured as “Ashoka Fellow 2007” (Social Entrepreneur)
2010: Nominated for the “Deutschen Engagementpreis” 2010
2011: Honoured by the Robert-Bosch-Stiftung as part of the “Die Verantwortlichen” campaign
2011: Nominated for the “Deutschen Engagementpreis” 2011
2011: Honoured by BILD and “Deutschland – Land der Ideen” as one of the “100 Frauen von Morgen”
2013: Awarded the “Wirkt! Siegel” from the organisation Phineo
2016: Honoured as one of the “25 Frauen, die unsere Welt besser machen” by Edition F
2019: Awarded the “Immanuel Kant-Weltbürger-Preis” from the Immanuel Kant-Stiftung
2025: Awarded the “Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany” (Federal Order of Merit)
