The Harvard DrPH

Hyung Joon Kim

Joon KimHyung Joon Kim, ’25
From: Seoul, South Korea
Degrees Held: MA, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
Email: hyungjoon_kim@hsph.harvard.edu

Joon Kim is a Doctor of Public Health student at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, focusing on social and behavioral sciences. Joon has over a decade of track record in conducting applied social science research, designing evidence-based Social and Behavior Change (SBC) strategies, and evaluating large-scale SBC programs in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), such as Nepal, Ghana, Afghanistan, India, and Malaysia.

His mission is to promote healthy behaviors and positive social norms for children, adolescents, and women from Global South to survive, thrive, and reach their full potential. Before his doctoral program at Harvard, he worked for numerous UNICEF offices in Nepal, Ghana, India, New York, and Malaysia as a Social and Behavior Change (SBC) program specialist. He advised various Health Ministries to promote routine immunization for the marginalized population effectively, introduce new vaccines such as HPV, IPV, and PCV, design and evaluate nationwide sanitation and nutrition campaigns for children, and strengthen the government’s capacity in risk communication and community engagement during public health emergencies. He has published several articles in academic journals such as BMJ Global Health, Vaccine, Bulletin of the WHO, and International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

At UNICEF Malaysia, he led office-wide emergency response for COVID-19 and Polio outbreaks and established the first-ever adolescent mental health program in the office. He was selected for an exclusive leadership track called NETI (New Emerging Talent Initiative) at UNICEF, which offered a two-year-long intensive leadership training and executive coaching.

Before joining UNICEF, Joon worked for the Korean Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Afghanistan, operated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). Also, he worked for UNHCR Southeast Asia headquarters and the Center on International Cooperation at New York University. He received his master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he was selected as a class speaker at the graduation ceremony.

Student News and Publications

October 2023
Hyung Joon Kim, DrPH ’25, published an op-ed titled Restoring North Korea’s Childhood Immunization Program with The Diplomat.

February 2023
Hyung Joon Kim, DrPH ’25, has been selected for the first cohort of 3.0: The Next Generation of the U.S-Republic of Korea Alliance Fellowship by Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)‘s Korea Chair with support from the State Department and the U.S. Embassy at Seoul. CSIS and an advisory council of distinguished American and Korean advisers with vast experience in government, academia and business will mentor the 3.0 Next Generation scholars. A core objective of the program is to invest in the best and brightest of Korean advanced graduate students to help form the future community of alliance supporters and managers for the U.S.-ROK alliance. 

Hyung Joon Kim, DrPH ’25
Hing NYL, Woon YL, Lee YK, Kim HJ et al. (2022) When do persuasive messages on vaccine safety steer COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and recommendations? Behavioural insights from a randomised controlled experiment in Malaysia. BMJ Global Health 2022;7:e009250.