NEW YORK – The President of the Onassis Foundation USA, Dr. Anthony Papadimitriou, announced today the appointment of Young Richard Kim as Director of Educational Programs and Assistant Executive Director. Dr. Kim will be responsible for re-envisioning the Educational Program initiated in 2000.

After the successful 12-year tenure of the previous director of education, Maria Sereti, Onassis Foundation President Anthony Papadimitriou took the opportunity to enhance and expand the educational initiatives. President Papadimitriou commented, “We are very pleased to have Dr. Young Kim join our team as we are embarking on new creative and intellectual initiatives at the Foundation that will bring Humanities to audiences across a much expanded landscape. With his diverse intellectual expertise, I know that Dr. Kim, together with our Executive Director Amalia Cosmetatou, will lead our cultural and educational programs into the future.”

Dr. Kim is currently designing a new academic and educational program that will continue to support visiting scholars from Greece, Europe, and within the Americas but also move the Foundation in new directions. In particular, he is developing initiatives that will strengthen the connection between the Humanities and Hellenic culture with the sciences and pre-professional disciplines, and he is pursuing opportunities for collaborative projects in digital humanities, community outreach, and social justice.

Commenting on his appointment, Dr. Kim said: “It is my privilege to advance the mission of the Onassis Foundation USA, to promote Greek culture, in all of its manifold, beautiful, and complicated expressions. As we look back to the legacy of the (ancient) Greeks, through their successes and failures, we can discover again how to engage in constructive civic discourse—to form ideas with reason and to articulate them with wisdom and grace—and how to appreciate and cultivate the literary and material artifacts of the past, present, and future. We must ‘know ourselves,’ and through cultural exchange learn how to live in global community, for the common good. Education in the arts and humanities is essential to these goals, and I am eager to develop an academic and educational program that will direct the resources of the Foundation to support innovative and lasting projects that will benefit the current and future generations.”

About Dr. Young Richard Kim
Young Richard Kim received his Ph.D. in History at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He was Assistant and Associate Professor of Classics and History at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan from 2006-17. He recently published Epiphanius of Cyprus: Imagining an Orthodox World (University of Michigan Press, 2015) and St. Epiphanius of Cyprus: Ancoratus, Fathers of the Church 128 (Catholic University of America Press, 2014). He has also authored numerous articles, book chapters, book reviews and conference proceedings and has frequently been an invited speaker at colleges and universities worldwide. Dr. Kim has been recognized with many awards and fellowships including a Fulbright Research Grant in Cyprus (2012-13). Dr. Kim’s detailed curriculum vitae is available on request.

About the Onassis Academic Program
Since the inception of the Academic Program in 2000, over 210 scholars have been hosted by more than 500 educational and cultural institutions across the United States, Canada, and Central and South America in disciplines including the Humanities, Social Sciences, Architecture, Medicine and Law. The program has presented 1,740 public lectures and seminars, 4 international conferences of Hellenic Studies, 62 courses and mini-courses at universities across North and South America, and 48 educational events for the public. Audiences of over 95,000 students, faculty and the public have benefited from the Academic Program. Through the Onassis Series in Hellenic Culture, Oxford University Press publishes books based on original scholarly material presented within the University Seminars Program. Each book is authored by an Onassis Visiting Scholar.

About The Onassis Foundation USA 
The Onassis Foundation USA is committed to the promotion of Hellenic Culture. By cooperating with educational and cultural institutions in Greece and throughout the Americas, the Onassis Foundation USA’s mission is realized through two major initiatives: The Onassis Cultural Center New York and the Onassis Academic Program, described above. The Onassis Cultural Center New York presents art and archaeological exhibitions and a season of major cultural and artistic events focused primarily on the humanities and science.