ABOUT ME
I am a Health Economist, and my research focuses on HPV-associated cancers, immune diseases (inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), HIV/AIDS), and social determinants of health (SDoH). I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Clinical Analytics & Decision Science Lab (The University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health - Link). I work on various population health studies, health outcomes studies, and economic evaluations, using large-scale data, spatial statistics, and mathematical decision modeling. My research interests are HPV-associated cancers and prevention, HPV-associated cancers among IBD or HIV/AIDS patients and LGBTQ+ population, cancer survivorship, and health literacy/SDoH, including area-level social vulnerability, and their impact on evidence-based medicine. I am especially interested in using distributional cost-effectiveness analysis for reducing health inequalities.
My background before coming to the Public Health field is in Economics (Master's) and Business Administration (Bachelor). I also was involved in Medical Law & Ethics research during and after my undergrad. I have a solid background in Economic theories I obtained over my Business and Economics majors, and I could build more applied Health Economics skills upon that during my PhD training. I am an (interdisciplinary) social scientist.
I am an avid weight-trainer, and I love planting and K-pop. I also host virtual writing retreats and support writings in a global organization ("Advancing Gender/Ethnic/Class Minorities in Academia"), where I discuss/learn how to create more inclusion and diversity and interact with fellow academics all around the world. I am a Seoul (Korea) native.
EDUCATION
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Medical Decision Model/Economic Evaluation
Using agent-based models, microsimulation, etc.
2018 - 2020
University of Texas Health Science Center
PhD in Health Economics
Population-Level Data Analysis
Using population-level administrative, registry, survey databases.
HPV-Associated Cancers
Anal, cervical, oropharyngeal, vulvar, vaginal, penile cancers
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)
Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis
2016 - 2018
University of Florida
PhD program in Health Services, Management and Policy - Transferred due to advisor's transfer
2013 - 2016
University of Utah
MS in Economics
2000 - 2006
Korea University (Seoul, Korea)
Bachelor in Business Administration
Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)
Health disparities, health literacy, socioeconomic status (SES), area-level social vulnerability