Kari Kohl (ASIJ 1986) ​​

Kari Kohl was raised by an IBM family in and around Westchester County, NY and Paris, France.  She came to Tokyo in 1984. She then stayed in Tokyo for a year and enrolled in Sophia University’s Intensive Japanese Language program.  Kari then returned to the US where she graduated from Princeton University in 1992 with a BA in Modern East Asian History with minors in Women’s Studies and Teacher Preparation.   She taught third grade in public New Jersey schools for 4 years, and then enrolled in Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and married David Kohl.  While earning her Masters Degree, she started her family, and quickly realized that she would not be able to devote herself 100% to both her family and a new career, and she decided to stay home with her children. During the next 13 years, she tutored, wrote curriculum for the New York Times, and became a volunteer breastfeeding counselor with La Leche League International.   It was during this time that she found her calling, wanting to empower women to know and feel comfortable with their bodies, and she started her journey to becoming a midwife. She graduated from Westchester Community College with her RN license in 2012, worked in Labor and Delivery for several years, and then earned her Masters in Midwifery and her CNM license from Frontier Nursing University in 2017. Since 2018, she has been working for Planned Parenthood in New Rochelle, NY, caring for women at all stages of life.  Her daughter, Alexandra, graduated from Brown University via Zoom this past May, and her son Ben begins college at Northeastern University this Fall.  

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