Serving Communities with Complex Needs
Cordelia Kwon knew early in life that she wanted to pursue a career in public health, influenced heavily by experiences with her mother, a pediatric neurologist, and her father, a bioethics professor. But where she would focus her career was less clear.
While earning her undergraduate degree at New York University at the height of conflicts in Syria and Yemen, she gravitated to international humanitarian work.
“I want to make sure that people with complex needs live lives that are full of choice and full of opportunity.”
While earning her undergraduate degree at New York University at the height of conflicts in Syria and Yemen, she gravitated to international humanitarian work.
She performed research and implemented interventions in Australia, Ghana, and the United Arab Emirates. After graduating from college a year into the COVID-19 pandemic and witnessing the suffering it brought to her community and beyond, Kwon felt a moral calling to serve people in the U.S.
For the past three years, she has worked for the North American office of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), a global research center, working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is rooted in scientific evidence. She has supported the development and dissemination of evaluations of health care delivery and other social safety net programs in the U.S.
At the Bloomberg School, Kwon is hoping to strengthen her research and evaluation skills to improve the health of people with complex social and medical needs. “My goal is to make sure that living with chronic diseases won’t prohibit individuals from living a full life.”
