KAERA Mentoring Committee
The KAERA Mentoring Committee serves a pivotal role in nurturing the future of educational researchers. This committee is dedicated to a multifaceted mission, which includes providing essential guidance and support to emerging young scholars as they navigate their career paths within the field of educational research. Through a diverse range of activities and initiatives, the Mentoring Committee strives to foster a thriving community of educational researchers. Join our community to learn more about the committee’s activities!
2023-24
Soo Bin Jang
Position: 2023-24 Chair
Affiliation:University of Delaware
Soo Bin Jang is an assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of Delaware. Her research is focused on the politics of education reforms, civic education, critical pedagogy, and educational equity. She earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction and Teacher Education, and Educational Policy at Michigan State University.
Jackie Eunjung Relyea
Position: 2023-24 Vice-Chair
Affiliation:North Carolina State University
Jackie Eunjung Relyea is an Assistant Professor of Literacy Education at the College of Education at North Carolina State University. Her primary research interests center on the development and evaluation of literacy interventions that enhance learning opportunities for elementary-grade multilingual students. She earned her Ph.D. in Literacy Education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Minhye Son
Position: 2024-25 Incoming Vice-Chair
Affiliation: California State University, Dominguez Hills
Minhye Son is an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Grounded in sociocultural theories and critical frameworks, her scholarly interests focus on the intersections of language and power in the areas of teacher education and bilingual/multicultural education. She obtained her Ed.D. at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Danbi Choe
Position: Member
Affiliation: Louisiana State University
Danbi Choe is an Assistant Professor of School Psychology at Louisiana State University. She has established her scholarship on exploring protective factors as means to alleviate the impact of risk factors on children’s and adolescents’ mental health from ethnically or linguistically minoritized backgrounds. She also displays a keen interest in the development and evaluation of social-emotional learning programs that are tailored to diverse cultural contexts.
Jiyea Park
Position: Member
Affiliation: University of Georgia
Jiyea Park is a post-doc associate in the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Educaiton, and Communication at the University of Georgia. Her research is focused on generational issues, gender issues, and educational methodologies. She earned her Ph.D. in Learning, Leadership, and Organization Development at the University of Georgia.
Jonga Lee
Position: Graduate Student Member
Affiliation:University of Georgia
Jonga Lee is a Ph.D candidate in Educational Theory and Practice at the University of Georgia. Her research focus is countering neoliberal impacts on education and promoting humanizing education through critical teacher education and curriculum development. She approaches this by adopting comparative and international perspectives in education, conducting discourse analysis, and paying attention to the social-emotional learning of students.
Jeong-Yeon Park
Position: Graduate Student Member
Affiliation:Michigan State University
Jeong-Yeon Park is a graduate student in the Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education program at Michigan State University. She previously worked as an elementary school teacher in South Korea. Her research interests center on global citizenship education and the preparation of pre-service and in-service teachers for globally conscious teaching, employing anti-/de-colonial perspectives as a theoretical framework.
KAERA Early Scholar Program
The KAERA Early Scholar Program is a selective mentoring program for emerging Korean and Korean American scholars who are beginning their careers as education researchers. This two-year cohort program provides selected early career scholars with mentorship from peers and other professionals who can offer guidance and support in the pursuit of educational and professional goals. The KAERA Early Career Scholars will participate in professional development seminars, meetings with their mentors, and peer networking and leadership-building activities. This program will allow early career scholars to gain valuable skills to strengthen their research capacity and promote excellence in their research, teaching, and leadership.
1st Cohort
Kyungeun Lim
Affiliation:Kennesaw State University
Kyungeun Lim is an Assistant Professor of Art Education at Kennesaw State University, Georgia. She has been teaching arts at schools, museums, and higher education institutions in traditional classroom settings and online classrooms. Lim's research interests are online art education, assessment, counternarrative, identity, belonging, arts integration, and STEAM, VR/AR.
Sungyoon Lee
Affiliation:Middle Tennessee State University
Sungyoon Lee is an assistant professor of elementary education in College of Education at Middle Tennessee Sate University. His research interests revolve around elementary students’ reading processes and comprehension. He earned his Ph.D. in Reading and Literacy Education at Texas A&M University.
Heewon Jang
Affiliation: University of Alabama
Heewon Jang is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership, Policy and Technology Studies. Her research focuses on using large-scale, population-based data to describe the patterns and consequences of segregation in schools and neighborhoods. She received her Ph.D. in Educational Policy from Stanford University.
Sunmin Lee
Affiliation: Texas State University
Sunmin Lee is an assistant professor at Texas State University. Her research interests lie in the area of early childhood inclusive education which involves listening to parents of color who have children with dis/abilities, thus allowing her to draw on intersectionality and Dis/Crit theory to understand their experiences.
Shin Ae Han
Affiliation: University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Shin Ae Han is an assistant professor in the Department of School of Teacher Education at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her research interests include young children's spatiality, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and teacher education. She earned her Ph. D. in Early Childhood Education at the University of Georgia.
Minseok Yang
Affiliation:University of Missouri
Minseok Yang is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Missouri. His research area includes educator labor markets, teachers’ unions, and quantitative methods for policy evaluation. He received his Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis with a minor in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Inaugural Cohort
Taeyeon Kim
Affiliation: University of Nebraska- Lincoln
Taeyeon Kim is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Administration at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her research examines the intersections of policy and leadership that promote equitable and humanizing practices in K-12 education. Drawing on policy enactment, sociocultural learning theories, and transnational/comparative perspectives, her work re-visits policy concepts and leadership theories by centering the voices of leaders who advocate for equity and social justice.
Jackie Relyea
Affiliation:North Carolina State University
Jackie Eunjung Relyea is an assistant professor of literacy education in the College of Education at North Carolina State University. Her research focuses on reading development and instruction for K-6 students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Her work has been supported by Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and AERA Grant Program. She earned her Ph.D. in Literacy Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Katie Koo
Affiliation: University of Georgia
Katie Koo is an assistant professor in the department of counseling and human development services at the University of Georgia. Her research and practice focus on underrepresented students’ collegiate experiences, mental health issues, and adjustment, including international students’ psychological well-being and racially minoritized students' unique experiences and challenges. Dr. Koo is the recipient of 2020 emerging scholar award and 2022 excellence international research award by the American College Personnel Association.
Kyongson Park
Affiliation: University of Michigan-Dearborn
Kyongson Park is an assistant professor in the department of education at University of Michigan-Dearborn. She received her Ph.D. in ESL/Second Language Studies (English) at Purdue University, IN. Dr. Park’s research interests include PreK-12 teacher education for ELLs, teacher collaboration for STEM literacy, intercultural communication, and language assessment for linguistically and culturally diverse students.
Jin Kyeong Jung
Affiliation: Texas Tech University
Jin Kyeong Jung is Assistant Professor in Language, Diversity, and Literacy Studies at Texas Tech University. She earned a Ph.D. in Literacy, Culture, and International Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Her interdisciplinary research agenda lies at the intersection of literacy, language, and technology to promote equity and diversity.
Minhye Son
Affiliation:California State University, Dominguez Hills
Minhye Son is an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Grounded in sociocultural theories and critical frameworks, her scholarly interests focus on the intersections of language and power in the areas of teacher education and bilingual/multicultural education. She obtained her Ed.D. at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Sun Young Lee
Affiliation: Wichita State University
Sun Young Lee is an assistant professor in the school of education at Wichita State University. Her research area includes curriculum studies and teacher education, and uses historical, comparative, and qualitative methods to studying education policy and practice. She earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction and a Ph.D. minor degree in Transdisciplinary Studies in Visual Cultures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dosun Ko
Affiliation: Santa Clara University
Dosun Ko is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education at Santa Clara University. His scholarship centers on outcome disparities in disability identification and school discipline at the intersection of different social markers and community-driven participatory design research. Dr. Ko is President-Elect of the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division for Culturally Linguistically Diverse Exceptional Learners. He earned his Ph.D. in Special Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Chansoon Lee
Affiliation: American Board of Internal Medicine
Chansoon (Danielle) Lee is a measurement scientist in the Department of Research and Innovation at the American Board of Internal Medicine. Her major research interest is predictive modeling using Bayesian model averaging and decision tree models. Also, her research focuses on psychometric approaches for test development, item security, and computerized adaptive testing.
Soo Bin Jang
Affiliation:University of Delaware
Soo Bin Jang is an assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of Delaware. Her research is focused on the politics of education reforms, civic education, critical pedagogy, and educational equity. She earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction and Teacher Education, and Educational Policy at Michigan State University.