About.

My path into research began in anthropology, with PhD fieldwork on Korean flight attendants. I assumed the job was easy until a group of aspiring attendants showed me the months of mock interviews, appearance rules, and paid training courses behind the friendly service passengers saw. I’ve looked for that kind of overlooked effort ever since, including in product research, where a “simple” flow often depends on unspoken assumptions and breaks down for people it wasn’t designed around.

I also wrote opinion pieces for The Korea Times in Seoul and reported for the international news agency Inter Press Service. As a college instructor, I ran mid-semester surveys and reworked lessons around what students said wasn’t working.

More recently, I co-led research on a community-safety reporting app, including usability testing with neighborhood patrollers. For a relationship app, I worked directly with the founder to recommend which features to prioritize.

Originally from Southern California, I’ve lived and worked in the Midwest, the South, and South Korea.