Jong Sung Kim is a PhD student in the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research centers on trauma-informed education and equity for adolescents from socio-economically disadvantaged communities in the U.S. and globally. He investigates how family, school, and neighborhood environments influence academic outcomes, executive function, sleep, and mental health—leveraging large-scale secondary datasets and applied quantitative methods. Trained in advanced statistical analysis, he aims to generate actionable evidence that supports school- and family-based interventions and policy. Jong holds UT’s Trauma Certificate (2024) and was awarded the Seaton Fellowship (2024–2025). He earned his MSSW from the University of Tennessee and his BS in Social Work from Soongsil University (Seoul, South Korea). His long-term goal is to advance trauma-informed, equity-oriented solutions that improve student learning and psychosocial development in under-resourced settings.
Research Interests
- Trauma-informed education
- Adolescent mental health & executive function
- Sleep, stress, and learning
- School- and family-based interventions
- Equity in under-resourced communities
- Quantitative methods & population datasets