Hali was born in Seoul, South Korea and grew up in Kansas City. She graduated from Princeton University, studied Buddhism at Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand, and received a Masters in Social Work from New York University. Hali has worked in many capacities and served on many boards, often combining a love of learning, the arts and equitable social change.
Hali is the founder of the Asian Women Giving Circle, which raises resources for Asian American women using the arts to bring about social change in their NYC communities. In fifteen years, the Circle has made grants of over one million dollars in support of eighty amazing projects. She is part of the co-design team that birthed Philanthropy Together in 2020, built to scale and strengthen the the burgeoning collective giving movement nationally. Currently, Hali participates in several philanthropy-sector initiatives, including the Impact Driven Philanthropy Collaborative at the Raikes Foundation, the Momentum Fund, and the decennial Deloitte/ Monitor Institute Philanthropy 2020.
Hali lives in Brooklyn, NY along with her dear husband, three college-age children, two cats and a big dog. In her free time, Hali loves to travel, read, play tennis and keep honeybees.