Jeeyeon Hong, LCSW

Jeeyeon Hong, LCSW is a doctoral candidate at The University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work. Her research focuses on developing, implementing, and evaluating brief strengths-based mental health interventions to improve youth mental health in schools or other community-based settings. Her scholarship integrates intervention research, community-engaged research, and implementation science to develop scalable mental health interventions.

Jeeyeon earned her Master of Social Work from the University of Washington and her Bachelor of Arts in Child and Family Studies and Social Work from Seoul National University. She is a licensed clinical social worker in both the United States and South Korea. Her research is informed by three years of clinical practice working with children and adolescents experiencing severe mental health challenges in community settings.

For her dissertation, Jeeyeon developed the Hope in Connection intervention, a brief school-based group therapy program. Integrating Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) with other well-established theories of hope, mental health, and suicide prevention, Hope in Connection is designed to strengthen protective factors—including hope, social support, and coping—to improve youth mental health in school settings. Using a community-engaged research approach, this project will be implemented in partnership with a local alternative high school in Austin to evaluate the intervention’s effectiveness in reducing depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. Jeeyeon was awarded the 2026 Hogg Foundation Harry Moore and Bernice Milburn Moore Fellowship to support her dissertation research.

In addition, Jeeyeon collaborated on the SOLVE Project, the first pilot study to develop and evaluate SFBT for autistic young adults in community settings. Her scholarship also includes systematic reviews, scoping reviews, and meta-analyses that strengthen the evidence base for SFBT and school mental health interventions. Her work has been published in Research on Social Work Practice, Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, Community Mental Health Journal, and Children & Schools.

In recognition of her commitment to promoting positive social change and peace, Jeeyeon was awarded the PEO International Peace Scholarship in 2024 and 2025, a prestigious scholarship for female international students. Jeeyeon’s long-term research goal is to continue developing strengths-based mental health interventions in partnership with communities to expand access to evidence-based practice for youth.