Judy Korn is a graduate educational scientist and founder and managing director of Violence Prevention Network gGmbH. Since the age of fourteen, when her friends were beaten up by neo-Nazis, Judy Korn has been taking action against right-wing extremism and thinking about the topic of prejudice-based violence. She manages to curb violence in her neighbourhood in the north of Berlin and to create the conditions for a peaceful coexistence of the various youth groups. These projects involving violence-prone youths show that people have the potential for change.
In 2003 Judy Korn left the civil service to found Violence Prevention Network, putting her ideals into practice and playing a significant role in shaping society. “We talk to extremist. Not about them.” – is the guideline under which the organisation has been carrying out its work with over 150 employees nationwide since 2004. While right-wing extremism was initially the main field of activity, Violence Prevention Network has also been working in the field of Islamist extremism since 2007. In the same year Judy Korn was named an Ashoka Fellow for her new and thoroughgoing approach to solving a social problem permanently and on a large scale. Until 2010, Judy Korn worked for almost 20 years in various teaching, mediation and lecturing formats, designing and organising events for various institutions (e.g. Alice-Salomon-Fachhochschule Berlin, Berliner Fußballverband, etc.). She is also founder and managing partner of VPN Wissenschaftsgesellschaft mbH and founder, managing director of modus | zad – Zentrum für angewandte Deradikalisierungsforschung gGmbH. The success of the approaches developed by Violence Prevention Network was made possible in large part by Judy Korn’s persistent advocacy of a collaborative approach. “Only through the continuous exchange of knowledge and expertise between the professional groups involved we can constantly adapt our approaches to the ever-changing requirements of the evolving extremist scenes.” – is one of Judy Korn’s guiding principles.
Since 2011, she has been actively involved in the implementation of the Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN). She was a member of the Steering Committee and head of the RAN Working Group EXIT and – as an expert – she advises various national and international organisations in the field of P/CVE. She has been a member of the Impact Europe Advisory Board since 2014. Since 2020 she is a Quality Manager of RAN Practitioners, and in 2021 she was appointed as a member of the European Safety Advisory Council of TikTok. In 2022 Judy Korn became a member in the Independent Advisory Committee of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT), and she is the founder and board member of Violence Prevention Network USA Inc. in Pittsburgh.
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: “Immanuel Kant-Weltbürger-Preis“ from the Immanuel Kant-Stiftung
