Faculty

Yoonsun Choi, Ph.D.

Yoonsun Choi is an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Service Administration. Her fields of special interest include minority youth development; effects of race, ethnicity, and culture in youth development; children of immigrants; Asian American youth; prevention of youth problem behaviors; and research methods. Professor Choi teaches courses in research methods and cultural adaptation of immigrant adolescents and their families.

Professor Choi’s research seeks to understand the familial and environmental processes that influence and impact ethnic minority children and their development and serves to inform the development of age- and culturally appropriate preventive interventions. Professor Choi is a recipient of the Research Scientist Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), with which she is conducting a series of interrelated research projects to identify the multiple developmental trajectories of Asian youth and the factors that predominate in the determination of these outcomes.

Professor Choi received an M.S.S.W. from the University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the University of Washington. She was NIMH pre-doctoral trainee in prevention research at the Social Development Research Group, the University of Washington. Her background also includes several years of clinical social work practice experiences in a variety of agencies with diverse populations. She worked with ethnic minority youth with severe emotional and/or behavioral problems and their families, children in foster care, mentally ill immigrant adults, and HIV+ immigrants with limited English proficiency.