I am a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School. My research investigates how public policies and socioeconomic factors affect underserved older populations, particularly older immigrants, nursing home residents, and people with Alzheimer’s disease. Part of my research also highlights inequalities across countries, comparing the wellbeing of older adults in developed countries with secure welfare systems, to those in countries without it. I use econometric methods to evaluate hypotheses generated from real-world insights and from theories of various disciplines of social sciences. My work has been published in clinical, health policy, public health, and economics journals, including Health Affairs, JAMA Network, The Gerontologist, and The Journal of the Economics of Ageing and has been covered by media such as the Times.
My current work examines the role of immigration in the long-term care workforce. Many nursing homes have been battling with chronic labor shortages, with the lack of care increasing risks of mental and physical decline among nursing home residents. Immigrants have been filling the staffing gaps, yet administrative inefficiencies and limited visa options have created barriers in entering the workforce. In several studies, I have been investigating the impact of immigrant labor on direct care staff hours in nursing homes and testing whether it could lead to better quality of care. With this project and many others, I aim to address questions on how public policies and other social forces can improve the health and wellbeing of underserved aging populations.
Education
• Ph.D. Public Policy and Management, Sol Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
• M.P.A. International Finance and Economic Policy, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, New York, NY
• M.A. Economics, Sogang University, Seoul, Korea
• B.A. (summa cum laude) Economics / Cultural studies, Sogang University, Seoul, Korea