Dr. Ahn is an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, School of Social Work. She has been on the faculty since 2009.
Dr. Ahn’s research interests include child and family welfare, and advanced quantitative analysis utilizing large-scale datasets. Dr. Ahn has been leading a range of research projects funded by Maryland Department of Human Resources Social Services Administration as a principal investigator. These projects include a statewide evaluation of effectiveness and efficiency of Maryland child welfare services and policies; Quality Assurance and Continuous Improvement Plan for child welfare policy and practice, Family Centered Practice, and Recruitments and Retention of Foster Parents. Dr. Ahn has been using a variety of datasets including the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) conducted by the US Census Bureau and examined impacts of federal welfare policy and Temporary Assistance for Needy Family (TANF) on low-income families’ income changes, child care costs, and mothers’ employments.
She also has been teaching core Master-level courses including “SOWK 600: Social Policy and Social Welfare, and SOWK670: Social Work Research,” and advising several MSW and PhD students at the University of Maryland.
Prior to joining the University of Maryland, Dr. Ahn worked at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in Washington, D.C. as a Research Economist. She received her MA and PhD in Social Policy from Brandeis University, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, and BA and MSW from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea.