Soyeon Shim

About

Soyeon Shim is the Elizabeth Holloway Schar Dean of the School of Human Ecology at UW–Madison and the Ted Kellner Bascom Professor of Consumer Science. Growing up in Seoul, South Korea, she developed an early interest in education and entrepreneurship, influenced by her supportive father who believed in gender equality. She earned her undergraduate and master's degrees at Yonsei University and completed her PhD in Human Ecology at the University of Tennessee–Knoxville. Shim's professional journey includes teaching high school consumer science, followed by academic positions in Colorado and Arizona, where she became director of the Norton School of Human Ecology. Since becoming dean in 2012, she has led the school through significant growth and transformation, emphasizing a human ecology perspective that integrates research, education, and outreach to improve human well-being. Her leadership focuses on fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, advancing innovative initiatives such as AI integration, and promoting community partnerships aimed at enhancing the quality of life for children and families. Shim is committed to making the school a hub for solving complex societal challenges through a human-centered approach, positioning human ecology as an essential science for addressing contemporary issues.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Finance
• Business
• Psychiatry
• Demography
• Social psychology
• Medicine
• Clinical psychology

Selected publications

• The Lengthening Transition to Adulthood: Financial Parenting and Recentering during the College-to-Career Transition

  Journal of Family Issues · 2020 · 50 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Using longitudinal data collected from a college cohort in the United States ( N = 922), we examined the associations between systemic and structural factors (gender, race/ethnicity, family SES, and first-generation college status), financial parenting (teaching, and modeling behavior), and emerging adults’ financial behavior. We conducted a series of one-way repeated measure ANOVA analyses (GLM) to assess patterns of average change in financial parenting and financial behavior in the first year…

  DOI

• Does Type of Financial Learning Matter for Young Adults’ Objective Financial Knowledge and Financial Behaviors? A Longitudinal and Mediation Analysis

  Journal of Family and Economic Issues · 2020 · 36 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Romantic Attachment Orientations, Financial Behaviors, and Life Outcomes Among Young Adults: A Mediating Analysis of a College Cohort

  Journal of Family and Economic Issues · 2020 · 33 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Financial behaviors, financial satisfaction, and goal attainment among college-educated young adults: A mediating analysis with latent change scores

  Applied Developmental Science · 2021-09-23 · 25 citations

  article

  The aim of the study is to investigate how 2,084 U.S. college-educated young adults (61.9% female, and 69.5% non-Hispanic White) navigated the goal attainment process during the transition to adulthood. Using four-wave data collected across eight years, we examined how financial behaviors (self-regulating behaviors) predicted both depressive symptoms (affective goal attainment evaluations) and financial obstacles to goal attainment (cognitive goal attainment evaluations) via financial satisfacti…

  PublisherDOI

• Unidirectional and bidirectional relationships between financial parenting and financial self-efficacy: Does student loan status matter?

  Journal of Family Psychology · 2020-04-09 · 22 citations

  articleSenior author

  Using longitudinal data and a cross-lagged, multigroup panel design, we examined unidirectional and bidirectional relationships between financial parenting and young adults' financial self-efficacy during the transition to adulthood. Because increasing college costs and student loan debt have changed the financial landscape of achieving higher education, we examined effects over time under 2 distinct conditions: a debt-financed college education and a debt-free college education. Analyses includ…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Joyce Serido

  University of Minnesota

  52 shared

• Kenneth C. Gehrt

  16 shared

• Antigone Kotsiopulos

  Colorado State University

  12 shared

• Chuanyi Tang

  11 shared

• Jing Jian Xiao

  10 shared

• Sun Young Ahn

  University of Puget Sound

  8 shared

• Bonnie L. Barber

  Griffith University

  8 shared

• Sherry Lotz

  University of Arizona

  8 shared

Labs

• Nancy M. Bruce Center for Design and Material CulturePI

Education

• Ph.D., Nutrition Science

  University of California, Los Angeles

  1995

• M.S., Nutrition Science

  University of California, Los Angeles

  1992

• B.S., Nutrition Science

  University of California, Los Angeles

  1989

Awards & honors

• Human Ecology Imperative Fellow

Similar researchers at University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Yiwei Zhangh-36
• J. Michael Collinsh-33
• Nancy Wongh-23