July 2026 Spotlight: Sae Hyun (Grace) Oh, Ph.D.
Sae Hyun (Grace) Oh, Ph.D.
Q: Can you share an aspect of your career development?
A: In my research, I examine how institutional supports and community resources shape children’s educational, social, and emotional development, as well as their long-term economic outcomes. I was fortunate to be mentored by Dr. Tama Leventhal, whose work encouraged me to move beyond focusing solely on neighborhood socioeconomic status and to consider broader social processes within neighborhoods. This perspective has also shaped my interest in how differences in institutional supports and local contexts contribute to variation in children’s outcomes across racial and ethnic groups, including Asian and Asian American youth.
Q: Tell us about a particular recent finding, current study, or recent publication and what makes you excited about it.
A: In my recent work, I examine racial and ethnic disparities in students’ pathways into STEM fields. I find that while school-based experiences are the primary drivers of STEM participation for White and Asian students, neighborhood institutional resources and local labor market conditions play a more central role for Black and Latinx students, who remain underrepresented in STEM. The finding highlights how educational inequality is shaped not only within schools but also by broader community contexts. I also focus on improving the measurement of racial-ethnic economic inequality in large administrative datasets by developing methods to address missing race and ethnicity information in Internal Revenue Service microdata. Taken together, my work seeks to bridge rigorous empirical research with practical tools that can better inform how resources are allocated to support adolescents’ educational and developmental trajectories and to connect these insights to inform policy and practices.
Q: Share your reflections on your interactions with the Asian Caucus.
A: I have been a member of the Asian Caucus since 2019 and have attended several sessions and events at SRCD conferences. I am especially grateful for sessions that focus on networking and career development for Asian students and researchers. I also value the sense of community and the opportunity to engage with research that centers populations that are often underrepresented in broader discussions. My interactions with Asian Caucus members have been personally meaningful and professionally enriching, providing valuable insights into research on development, education, and inequality. Through these events, I have been able to build strong connections and friendships, for which I am truly grateful. I look forward to continuing to be involved in the Caucus and learning from others in the community.
Q: Any upcoming talks or presentations we should know about?
A: I was not able to attend SRA in person this year, but I would be happy to share my poster if anyone is interested. In this project, I use the expansion of neighborhood institutional resources under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) to study how access to these resources affects adolescents’ academic and socioemotional development. I treat the mobilization of local nonprofit and religious organizations as a source of policy-driven variation and use a staggered difference-in-differences approach to estimate these effects. Please feel free to reach out if you would like to learn more.
