Sangmi Kim

Sangmi Kim is a PhD candidate in Social Work at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with a minor in Intercollegiate Graduate Statistics and Data Science Program (IGSDSP). She earned her MSW from Ewha Womans University (Seoul, Korea) in 2013 and holds Korea’s highest-level national social worker license. She has professional experience providing mental health support in community welfare centers and contributed to Korea–Japan comparative child welfare research at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. She further advanced her international scholarship at the University of Tsukuba (Japan), where she studied NEET youth (Not in Education, Employment, or Training), hikikomori (prolonged social withdrawal), and youth volunteerism.

Her academic journey reflects a sustained commitment to addressing youth mental health challenges through family- and community-centered approaches. Her current research bridges youth mental health and digital innovation, with particular focus on suicide prevention, adolescent resilience, data justice, and culturally responsive AI-based dialogue. She primarily works with marginalized and at-risk youth, immigrant families, racial/ethnic minorities, and culturally diverse communities.

Methodologically, she employs advanced quantitative approaches, including psychometrics, machine learning, multimodal and multi-agent analysis, HITL (human-in-the-loop) AI, structural equation modeling (SEM), generalized linear mixed models (GLMM), and multilevel modeling. Through multidisciplinary collaboration, she designs practical and equitable digital health solutions, such as culturally responsive crisis hotline services that provide immigrant families with support in their native languages, AI-based multimodal and multi-agent systems, and HITL chatbots that enhance accessibility and equity in youth mental health.

Inspired by Nietzsche’s philosophy of Amor Fati—embracing challenges as opportunities for growth—Kim approaches both research and teaching with resilience and adaptability. She is committed to preparing future social workers to engage critically with digital technologies while upholding ethics, inclusion, and community-based practice. Her scholarship further emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration and community partnerships that translate research into meaningful, real-world impact.

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