Ph.D. Candidate

Sarah Jiyoon Kwon

Sarah Jiyoon Kwon’s research interests: Child and family policy, child poverty, income inequality


Sarah is a doctoral student focusing on social policy analysis at the Columbia School of Social Work under the supervision of Dr. Jane Waldfogel. The overarching aim of her research efforts is to understand family well-being and child development and their dynamic relationships with social policies. She is currently working on several research projects, including a cross-national project investigating the development of inequalities in child development, and a longitudinal study on New York City’s early childhood poverty. As a graduate research assistant, she delves into quantitative analyses to provide new evidence on disparities in child outcomes and family experiences from domestic and global contexts. Prior to joining Columbia, Sarah served as a program specialist at the Korea Ministry of Education. She also worked as a research assistant at the Korea Institute of Public Administration. She holds an MSc in Social Policy (Research) from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She earned her MPA in Public Policy and BA in Consumer and Child Studies from Seoul National University.