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 Bishop Hee-Soo Jung was the first of three bishops elected at the North Central Jurisdictional Conference in 2004 and was assigned to be the Episcopal leader of the Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church (Chicago Episcopal Area). Bishop Jung is the first non-Anglo bishop to serve as the head of this ethnically diverse Conference.
At the time of his election to the episcopacy Jung was serving as a district superintendent in the Wisconsin Conference, a position he had held since 1997. Prior to serving as superintendent, Jung chaired the Department of Religion and Philosophy and was Dean of the University Chapel at Kangnam University and Seminary in Kyungki-Do, Korea. Jung has served as pastor of congregations in Wisconsin, California, Texas and Korea and was responsible for establishing a new Korean congregation at University United Methodist Church in Madison, Wisconsin and while serving a congregation in Seoul Korea was also director of the Young Factory Workers' Professional School, Urban Ministry.
Bishop Jung earned a Doctor of Philosophy from University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master of Arts in Institute of Buddhist Studies (affiliated with the Graduate Theological Union), Berkeley, California, and Dongguk University Graduate School, Seoul, and, graduated from Methodist Theological Seminary in Korea.
Known across the denomination for his work on refugee, immigration, cross cultural and interfaith relations issues, Jung has been a board member of the General Commission on Christian Unity and Inter-religious Concerns and served on the Immigrant Task Force of the General Council on Finance and Administration and currently serves as a member of the Governor's Immigration Council. Jung has worked with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) in assisting refugees, and taught classes in "Restorative Justice" and "Creating Interfaith Community".
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