As part of International Education Month, Public Administration and Policy is celebrating some of our outstanding international students. Meet Nayeong Kim.

Nayeong is a third-year Ph.D. student and research assistant from South Korea. She is interested in organizational theory, public personnel management, and democratic governance. Before joining the program, Nayeong completed her MPA at Yonsei University and received dual bachelor’s degrees, in Mass Communications and Public Leadership, at Sogang University in Seoul, South Korea.

During her undergraduate studies, Nayeong interned at the Korea National Assembly, giving her the opportunity to closely observe its annual audit of government agencies. That experience served as an inspiration to pursue degrees in public administration and contemplate how to hold the government accountable to its citizens.

Her current research explores the impact of excessive political control on the competence of public organizations and devotes special attention to the elements of the civil system designed to insulate public servants from political manipulation. Her scholarly interest also centers around representative bureaucracy, which can be more responsive to the whole citizenry than a demographically homogeneous workforce by reflecting the voices and attitudes of various segments of society.

Beyond the field of public administration, she has explored the implications of information technology on democratic governance and published co-authored work in the Journal of Information Technology and Politics.