Catherine
Chen
Catherine Chen is the CEO of Polaris, a leading anti-trafficking organization in the United States. She is a veteran anti-trafficking strategist who has spent two decades building innovative social justice programs and pushing for policy change to address the root causes of sex and labor trafficking.
Catherine was previously Polaris’s chief program officer where she designed the organization’s 10-year strategy. Before joining Polaris, she was Director of Investments at Humanity United, a human rights foundation created by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pamela. Catherine led the Human Trafficking and Labor Migration team, spearheading a global campaign to raise the plight of migrant workers in Qatar ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. She also created the Partnership for Freedom, a multi-million dollar public-private partnership to spur innovation in the anti-trafficking field.
Earlier in her career, she served as the inaugural global Anti-Trafficking and Child Protection Advisor for Save the Children, working across 17 countries to address child exploitation and led a nationwide training and technical assistance program for U.S. Department of Justice-funded anti-trafficking task forces.
As a first generation Chinese-American, Catherine brings a deep commitment to racial and gender justice and economic equity and has a long track record of building up leaders who have lived experience. In addition to her leadership of Polaris, Catherine is Board member of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF), and a founding member of Chief, a national network of 6,000 women executives. Catherine holds a B.A. in human biology from Stanford University and a Masters in Public Health from Columbia University. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and her Indonesian street dog.