Advising & Contact Information

In my work I aim to shift the narratives of fathers, specifically Black fathers within Black families. I utilize a Black intersectional feminist framework in my research and teaching. 

I see teaching and learning as a two-way street; I am as much a learner as a teacher. Education is a transforming and liberating process in which students become aware of how knowledge is constructed, consider who has the power to define important issues such as “health,” “normal,” or “success,” and are empowered through relational practices to resist or redefine inequitable social realities. Knowing that I have made a difference in students’ lives and that they will make a difference in the lives of others is my most important calling.   

I am bilingual (conversational Korean and English, written and oral) and interested in using languages as markers of culture to learn and understand the culture(s) of mental health, clinical education, and practice.

I am a family therapist devoted to healing the wounds of social and historical traumatic stress and fostering resilience. I am committed to training culturally responsive and globally informed MCFT practitioners to serve the unique needs of diverse communities, both locally and internationally. As an educator, I believe that education is a drawing out, not a putting in.  Knowledge is not simply transmitted from the teacher to students, but is actively constructed in the mind of the learner through dialogue, reflection and various hands-on activities. I believe that students make their ideas by constructing their own knowledge structures, and that they learn by integrating new information from their own life experience.

Operating within a self-of-the-therapist framework, I firmly believe that in order to be effective therapists, we must stand in our own humanity to bear witness to the humanity of others. I care less about the regurgitation of information in the classroom and care more about curiosity, exploration, flexibility, and integration as we learn from each other. I teach MCFT concepts through a broader sociological and contemporary issues lens, encouraging students to expand the ways in which they think, integrate, and apply knowledge and skills into their clinical work.