Shinye Kim

Dr. Kim is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Counseling Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Licensed Psychologist. Her research focuses on the contextual understanding of chronic pain and opioid use: she examines the intersection of social, cultural, linguistic, and psychological factors on the pain experienced by ethnic and linguistic minorities. Using her recent NSF grant, her research team interviewed more than one hundred health care providers and chronic pain patients in order to examine the cultural and socio-cognitive factors influencing how members of ethnic and linguistic minority groups experiencing chronic pain communicate with their healthcare providers (as well as the experience of healthcare providers working with these populations). She is using the results from these interviews to develop a digital health technology for chronic pain patients with ethnic and linguistic minority backgrounds; the purpose of which is to substantially improve pain communication with their healthcare providers by incorporating cultural and linguistic norms and patterns that affect the pain experience. The ultimate goal of her research is to better analyze and form policies that will improve not only our understanding, but also improve equity in the delivery of pain health care. She has clinical experience working with patients with severe mental health illness, as well as patients in pain management, and consultation-liaison psychiatry. She also spent four years in psychoanalytic training at the Wisconsin/Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute. She is on the editorial board of Health Psychology, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Psychology of Men and Masculinities, the Journal of Career Assessment and Frontiers in Psychology: Cultural Psychology Section.

Dr. Kim will be accepting a doctoral student to start Fall 2023. Prospective students who are interested in pain health disparities research are especially encouraged to apply!