Hyun Ju Kim

Dr. Kim is a Project Director III at UNH’s Institute on Disability (IOD) whose research interest includes quantitatively evaluating Social Security disability programs with a focus on economic mobility and financial security for vulnerable populations by race/ethnicity, gender, and immigrant status. When she joined IOD as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in 2022, she analyzed the impact of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) on poverty during economic shocks comparing the Great Recession and the COVID pandemic recession. She intends to expand her research to investigate the food security among participants of SSI and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), barriers and facilitators of using Achieving Better Life Experience (ABLE) accounts among SSI recipients, and ethnic network effects among immigrant populations with disabilities in applying for SSDI/SSI. Prior to joining IOD, Dr. Kim worked at the World Bank as a consultant and conducted research on structural profiles of informality in the labor markets of the Middle East and North African region.