Email: hcheon6@uic.edu
Hyun-Seok (Edward) Cheon received his BA in Social Welfare from the University of California, Berkeley and graduated with his MSW from the University of Pennsylvania. He has global work experiences, having engaged in preliminary research for implementing character-based education in K-12 at a child welfare think-tank in South Korea.
While in California, Edward provided mentoring and advocacy services, where he championed an educational system that upholds equity, cultural awareness, and individual uniqueness. At Penn, he interned as a clinical therapist at the Kirkbride Center, providing clinical and case management services for people rehabilitating from substance use. And at the Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development (PHENND), a consortium of over 30 colleges and universities in the greater Philadelphia area, he coordinated a university-community partnership by managing a U.S. Department of Education’s federally funded program of addressing college and career readiness among students of low-socioeconomic status.
Through the PhD program at Jane Addams College of Social Work, Edward is currently engaged in his dissertation work, researching institutional collaboration in the field of social work to create social impact. Through this work, Edward seeks to enhance social work case management by advancing integrated services and fostering collaboration to address complex community challenges. He also teaches two Master’s-level social work courses in social policy and research methodology, integrating his academic and professional expertise to inspire students.
Additionally, at Great Cities Institute where he is serving as the communication and design lead, Edward is dedicated to ensuring that the institute’s impactful research and community engagement initiatives are actively and effectively shared with the public. His approach centers on leveraging various communication channels and social media platforms as well as his own design capacity to transform complex research findings into accessible, visually appealing, and engaging content. By doing so, he aims to prevent valuable insights from remaining underutilized, ensuring they reach and resonate with a broader audience. His efforts help bridge the gap between academic research and public discourse, fostering a well-informed community actively engaged in the institute’s work.
Drawing from diverse experiences, Edward is dedicated to addressing systemic challenges in social work through collaboration, innovation, and mediation. He is committed to advancing equity, dismantling polarization, and driving sustainable change.