Hi! I am Nari. I am an Assistant Professor of Social Work and a Scholar of the Michigan Program for Advancing Cultural Transformation at the University of Michigan.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research aims to advance behavioral health equity and digital well-being among immigrants, refugees, and racial and ethnic minority populations through data-driven and computational approaches. My work focuses on three areas: (1) macro- and meso-level factors—such as institutional contexts, policy environments, and service system characteristics—that shape mental health and service use; (2) the role of digital technologies, including telehealth, mobile health, and AI-enabled tools, in expanding culturally and linguistically responsive models of care; and (3) the integration of computational approaches in social work and mental health research, such as natural language processing, geospatial analytics, big data analysis, and multilevel modeling.
My first-authored papers have been published in Psychiatric Services, Social Science & Medicine, Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, and Digital Health. My dissertation was supported by the Grand Challenges for Social Work, the American Psychological Association, and the NYU Migration Network. I have received national awards and scholarships in Korea from the Migration Research and Training Centre, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the Ministry of Education. Outside of research, I serve as a board member of Migration to Asia Peace and a research committee member of Mustard Seed Generation.
At the University of Michigan, I am a faculty affiliate of the e-Health and Artificial Intelligence (e-HAIL) initiative and the Curtis Center for Health Services Research & Innovation. At NYU, I was selected as the inaugural predoctoral fellow at the Constance and Martin Silver Center on Data Science and Social Equity and co-organized the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science (SICSS)–NYU Silver, focusing on data science for social good. I hold a PhD in Social Work from New York University.
Disclaimer: This blog is for general informational purposes only. I cannot provide individual consulting or respond to personal inquiries. All views expressed are my own and do not represent my institution.
RECENT NEWS
2026
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Jan 2026. I plan to attend the SSWR 2026 in Washington, D.C. I organize the workshop titled “Implementing AI-Based Large Language Models for Social Work Research: Foundations, Local Deployment of Open Source Models, and Practical Considerations,” and the roundtable “Navigating the Intersection of Data Science and Social Work Research: Perspectives from Early to Senior Career Researchers.” I also present other papers in progress.
2025
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Oct 2025. I am excited to be selected as the 2025 recipient of the KASWEA Outstanding Dissertation Award!
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Oct 2025. I joined the E-Health & Artificial Intelligence (e-HAIL) initiative at the University of Michigan as a faculty member. I am presenting my work and proposed research agenda in a new member double-header seminar.
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Sep 2025. My first-authored paper from my dissertation study, “Utilizing Computational Methods to Assess Racial, Ethnic, and Linguistic Diversity and Spatial Accessibility of the Clinical Social Work Workforce in the United States,” has been published in the Journal of Society of Social Work Research (JSSWR).
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Sep 2025: My first authored paper, “Explaining Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Telehealth Use With Different Levels of English Proficiency: A Decomposition Approach,” has been published in Telemedicine Reports.
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Sep 2025. I am excited to serve as the editorial board member for the Journal of Technology in Human Services!
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Sep 2025. I have officially started my position at U-M SSW! You can read the announcement of my appointment here.
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Jul 2025. I am presenting two papers at the APA Division 45 Research Conference for the following sessions: (1) Asian and Asian American Identity and Discrimination, and (2) Immigrant and Refugee Mental Health.
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May 2025. I am excited to be awarded a student scholarship for the APA Division 45 Research Conference in Ann Arbor!
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May 2025. I am presenting at the “Healing During Uncertainty: Asian American Mental Health” conference at CUNY School of Law.
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May 2025: I will be presenting at the Innovation-Technology-Inclusion Social Impact Forum hosted by the Department of Social Welfare at Ewha Womans University. My talk, titled “Harnessing Data Science in Social Work: A Case for Mental Health Research,” will include findings from my dissertation work. Korean-speaking people interested in joining are welcome to email me for more details!
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May 2025: I am excited to begin serving on the Membership Committee for the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR).
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Apr 2025: I am attending my first Association for Asian American Studies conference in Boston for Public Persuasion Project training supported by AAPI Data.
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Apr 2025: I have been co-organizing this important initiative – the Data for Good Roundtable Series. Join us on April 10 for the first event of the Data for Good Roundtable: “Data for Good: Challenges and Opportunities in an Age of Uncertainty.” Grateful to be working alongside such a thoughtful team. Looking forward to the conversation!
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March 2025: I am presenting my dissertation findings and sharing practical implications with Korean/Korean American community members via Mustard Seed Generation. The title is “Heart-to-Healing Fireside Chat Series: Mental Health Services in Korean Language: State-by-State Access and Telehealth.”
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Jan 2025: I am thrilled to share that I’ll be joining the University of Michigan School of Social Work as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Fall 2025!
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Jan 2025: I am attending SSWR 2025 in Seattle! Please find my list of presentations here. I am going to provide a workshop session on using social media data on Friday and present my dissertation project on Saturday.
2024
- Oct 2024: My first-authored paper on structural xenophobia has been selected for the 2024 APHA PHSW Student Paper Award 🙂 Delighted to be connected with the public health social work community in Minneapolis.
- Sep 2024: I contributed to a blog post on “FAQs for Those Feeling Anxious About Their First Therapy Session in the U.S.” for Mustard Seed Generation. It is available in Korean as well.
- Sep 2024: I have been serving as a communication committee member at SSWR. Please check our recent newsletter with my contributed piece on Qualtrics.
- Aug 2024: I am selected as a recipient of the 2024 APA Dissertation Research Award! You can find more information about my dissertation project here.
- Jul 2024: The poster of my co-authored paper, “Predicting Depressive Symptoms through Emotion Pairs within Asian American Families,” was presented to the International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2) 2024. Excited to connect with other computational social scientists!
- May 2024: I am selected as an NYU Urban Doctoral Fellow for 2024-2025. I am so excited to learn more about the applications of urban science in behavioral health research and connect with other scholars studying urban issues.
- May 2024: My book chapter, “Applying to Graduate School: Tips and Strategies for BIPOC and International Students,” is now available in the book “Transforming Careers in Mental Health for BIPOC: Strategies to Promote Healing and Social Change,” edited by my advisor Dr. Doris Chang.
- Apr 2024: The part of my dissertation study has been selected for the special issue titled “Research Methods for Enhancing the Study of Race and Antiracism in Social Work,” of the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research (JSSWR) for the methodology report describing the use of data science methods for social work research.
- Apr 2024: I contributed to a blog post on “Seeking Therapy as an International Student” for Mustard Seed Generation, which is a non-profit organization where I have been volunteering as a research committee member.
- Apr 2024: I am awarded the “Diane Greenstein Memorial Fellowship,” selected as an exemplary dissertation proposal by PhD Program committee at NYU Silver School of Social Work. Please find the Student News covered by our program for more information.
- Mar 2024: My first-authored paper titled “Does social empathy moderate fear-induced minority blaming during the COVID-19 pandemic?” was accepted to Social Science & Medicine. You can find a summary of the article in Korean from Korea University News.
- Feb 2024: I am awarded the C.V. Starr Fund for A/P/A Research Grant! This grant will be used for a community advisory board for my dissertation project.
- Jan 2024: I attended the SSWR 2024 Conference and presented the report on organizing the SICSS for social work doctoral students.
- Jan 2024: I am delighted to share that I have been selected as an awardee of the Grand Challenges for Social Work Doctoral Award! My work is also supported by the NYU Migration Network Graduate Student Award. Please find this Student News by NYU Silver for more information on my dissertation research.
2023
- Sep 2023: My recent paper on “Mapping Anti-Asian Xenophobia” was covered by the NYU Press Release and mentioned in AsAmNews and Washington Square News with my interview!
- Aug 2023: In 2023, I was selected as a fellow of the NIDA-funded Substance Abuse Research Education & Training (SARET) program at NYU School of Medicine. I have been participating in “Smartphones for Opioid Addiction Recovery (SOAR)” project by conducting interviews with practitioners.
- Jul 2023: I am officially an All But Dissertation (ABD); I am going to work on my dissertation on the language access to mental health services among Hispanic and Asian immigrants for the next two years!
- Jun 2023: I organized SICSS (Summer Institute in Computational Social Science)-NYU Silver with a focus on data science for social equity in June 2023.
- Jan 2023: My blog post on how to use the
getcensuspackage in Stata is mentioned by StataNews!
