Kaign Christy is the Director of Operations for Southeast Asia for International Justice Mission. IJM is a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local governments to ensure victim rescue, to prosecute perpetrators and to strengthen the community and civic factors that promote functioning public justice systems.

Prior to his position as Director of Operations for Southeast Asia, Kaign served IJM as Director of IJM’s Field Office in Cambodia. Throughout his three years in Southeast Asia, Kaign worked with Cambodian authorities to investigate and prosecute cases of sex trafficking, forced prostitution and the commercial sexual exploitation of trafficked women and children. During his time in this role, Mr. Christy led and participated in investigations resulting in the arrest of 102 traffickers, and the rescue of 296 victims of sex trafficking, some as young as 6 years old. As a result of his work, Mr. Christy was awarded the Commander Medal of Sahametrei by Cambodia’s Prime Minister; this is the highest award given by the Government of Cambodia to foreign nationals for service to the nation of Cambodia.

Before joining IJM in 2004, Mr. Christy had a 20-year career with Aspey, Watkins and Diesel, the largest law firm in northern Arizona. As managing partner of their Sedona office for 15 years, Kaign practiced law in the areas of estate planning and probate, real estate transactions, criminal defense and municipal court prosecution. Mr. Christy received his B.A. in Philosophy and Economics from Wheaton College and his J.D. from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law of the College of William and Mary.

In his current role as Director of Operations for Southeast Asia, Mr. Christy is responsible for overseeing all the IJM field offices in the region. He manages the design and execution of new projects and coordinates the development and implementation of budgets among the four Southeast Asia offices. Mr. Christy also regularly represents IJM at church services, donor groups, conferences, law schools and universities across the United States.

Mr. Christy and his wife Jean live in the D.C. area. They have two children, Lizzy and James.