Biography

A researcher with extensive experience in human rights advocacy and various social justice issues, Dr. Cho has worked across a wide variety of NGOs, including Amnesty International USA, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Re:Gender (formerly, the National Council for Research on Women), as well as grassroots social service organizations. Her research interests are on poverty, labor, migration, globalization, and qualitative research - especially as they intersect with race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class in the U.S. and globally.

Industry Expertise (7)

Education/Learning

Non-Profit/Charitable

Research

Program Development

Professional Training and Coaching

Training and Development

Writing and Editing

Areas of Expertise (8)

Postcolonial Feminist Perspectives

Critical Human Rights

Anti-Poverty and Socioeconomic Rights

Human Trafficking and Labor Exploitation

Migration and Globalization

Gender and Sexuality

Social Welfare Policy and Advocacy

Qualitative Research

Education (3)

New York University: Ph.D., Social Work 2017

Columbia University: MSSW, Social Work 2005

University of California, Berkeley: B.A., Psychology 2000

Event Appearances (3)

Human Trafficking: Defining the Issue and Serving the Individual

William Paterson University - 2018  Wayne, NY

Equity, Justice, and Ethics in Working with Individuals Engaged in Sex Work

Hamilton-Madison House - 2016  New York, NY

Human Trafficking & Asian Pacific Islander Communities: Defining the Issue and Serving the Individual

Queens Child Guidance Center - 2016  Queens, NY

Articles (4)

Wronged by rescuers: Perspectives of Asian migrant defendants of the Human Trafficking Intervention Courts in New York

Journal of Progressive Human Services

In Press

Victims, agents, and everything in-between: A qualitative exploration of female migrant defendants of NY’s Human Trafficking Intervention Courts

Dissertation, New York University

2017 This qualitative study, conducted with 33 Chinese female migrant massage parlor workers who were defendants of the Human Trafficking Intervention Courts in New York, explored their history, socioeconomic lives, and unmet needs for social services. The study examined various factors involved in their im/migration processes, personal difficulties and triumphs, and sites of resilience and resistance. Explorations of their lived experiences and hopes and dreams revealed their complicated identities and work/life decisions they make, largely unavailable in the mainstream discourse on human trafficking. The study concludes with an outline of implications for clinical and policy practice for professionals whose work impacts the lives of this study’s participants – as well as other migrants who cross borders in search of better opportunities and life chances.

Methodological issues in social class research: A call for theorization and study

The Oxford Handbook of Social Class in Counseling

2013 Counseling and psychology researchers have been increasingly called to attend to social class and related constructs (e.g., classism) as important variables in research. This chapter discusses the importance of attending to and considering social class in all stages of the research process (e.g., documenting participant characteristics, and studying social class as a targeted variable). The chapter reviews social class measurement issues, and provides guidance on the strengths and limitations of selecting various operational definitions of social class and related constructs. Finally, more general issues of methodology and research design are discussed when incorporating these constructs into counseling research. The chapter concludes by calling for researchers to be more mindful about carefully measuring and incorporating social class into future research, and to conduct more research on and theorization pf social class and related variables.

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The feminization of poverty: Implications for mental health practice

Women and Mental Disorders: Understanding Women's Unique Life Experiences

2012 In the United States, women are 32% more likely to live in poverty than are men (Legal Momentum, 2010); globally, "women perform 66% of the world's work, produce 50% of the food, but earn ten percent of the income and own one percent of the property" (United Nations Development Fund for Women, n.d., para. 3). The overrepresentation of women among people living in poverty—a trend that has been referred to as the feminization of poverty (Pearce, 1978)—is, therefore, a phenomenon with important implications for mental health practitioners and their ability to effectively contribute to women's psychological well-being. In this chapter, we will set the stage by identifying two forms of oppression that operate to catalyze this phenomenon: (a) patriarchy and sexism, and (b) classism. Next, we will examine data that illustrate the prevalence of poverty among women, as well as current thinking regarding the mechanisms that contribute to this trend. Following this examination, we will connect the discussion to the mental health literature by reviewing what researchers have learned about the mental health needs of poor women.

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