index.qmd

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title: "Modeling Religion and Health"
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  image-title: "Seungju Kim"
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:::{#intro-bio .text-center}
My name is Seungju Kim[^1] and thank you for visiting my personal website detailing my research interests and work!

[^1]: Click [here](https://www.name-coach.com/seungju-kim) to learn how to pronounce my name

I am a **National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow** and second-year PhD student in Clinical/Community Psychology Program at the **University of Illinois** under Dr. Nathan Todd.

My [research](https://follhim.github.io/research/papers.html) is broadly focused advancing the **science of LGBTQ+ health disparities** by looking ath the **socio-ecological** effects of **religion/spirituality**.
:::

::: {#news}
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## Research Interests

My research is ultimately informed by my commitment to creating lasting change for the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ people within the context of religion.

1.  I engaged in modeling how **religion/spirituality** across varying **socioecological levels** are associated with health for LGBTQ+ individuals.

2.  I currently pursuing efforts in **meta-science** focused on advancing methodological rigor in LGBTQ+ health research. This includes critically examining dominant theoretical frameworks, methodological innovations (e.g., Bayesian inference), and creation of software/resources to advance the quantitative infrastructure of LGBTQ+ science.

3.  As part of my commitment to **translational research**, I seek to collaborate with religious communities to develop empirically-supported, culturally-responsive resources and training protocols. This work aims to enhance the capacity of religious leaders, institutions, and families to effectively support LGBTQ+ individuals in ways that honor both their faith commitments and sexual/gender identities.


## Education & Training

Prior to beginning his doctoral studies, Seungju earned his B.A. in Psychology *magna cum laude* from Wheaton College, where he completed an honors thesis examining psychological well-being in religious mixed-orientation marriages during his junior year. His research training began as a freshman working with Dr. Sandra Rueger, before joining Dr. Mark Yarhouse at the Sexuality and Gender Identity Institute, where he contributed to a national study investigating the complex intersection of faith and LGBTQ+ identities.

Expanding his research training before his senior year, Seungju established significant external collaborations with leading researchers. At **Utah State University**, he worked with Dr. Tyler Lefevor examining the effects of religiousness and spirituality on LGBTQ+ mental health, where he developed skills in psychometric scale development and validation using R's {psych} and {lavaan} packages.

Simultaneously, Seungju joined Dr. David Wang at **Fuller Theological Seminary**, analyzing longitudinal data from a $1.9 million study on spiritual formation. This collaboration strengthened his experience in sophisticated longitudinal modeling using R and Mplus, examining complex patterns of change over time.

His quantitative methodological expertise was further enhanced when he was  selected for the competitive [NSF-REU Health Equity](https://mhdi.unl.edu/undergraduate-research-programs/nsf-reu-site-community-engaged-training-advancing-health-equity/) summer internship at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Working with Drs. Katie Edwards and Lorey Wheeler on multiple NIH-funded studies examining LGBTQ+ youth and emerging adults, Seungju gained advanced skills for identifying mischievous responders in survey data, regression models, and scale development. He was later recruited as a post-bac research associate at the [UNL methodology and psychometrics center](https://mapacademy.unl.edu/).

Before entering graduate school, Seungju was awarded the [National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship](https://www.nsfgrfp.org/), among one of the only awardees at Wheaton.