Team

Dr. Park is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, Sustainability, Community, and Urban Studies at the University of Connecticut (UConn). She earned a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her doctoral dissertation was recognized with the Jacques May Prize from the American Association of Geographers (AAG) as the best dissertation addressing themes in health/medical geography. Prior to joining UConn, she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, Planning, and Environment at East Carolina University in North Carolina.

Her research focuses on understanding interdisciplinary questions of health disparities, environmental justice, and environmental exposure using geographic information systems (GIS). Her work has been supported by several external funding sources, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), AAG, and the North Carolina General Assembly.

Curriculum Vitae (Last update: April 2025)

PhD Student

Research Interest: Tao's research interest lies in the intersection between human mobility and health geography. She seeks a better understanding of the intertwined relationship between people’s travel behaviors and health outcomes. She is currently working on an interdisciplinary research project that assesses PM2.5 exposure among public transportation riders using GIS. Her personal website is https://taopeng.org/

Awards: 

• Summer Research Fellowship, Department of Geography, Sustainability, Community, and Urban Studies, University of Connecticut.

PhD Student

Research Interest: Ailing's research focuses on environmental exposure, environmental health, and health disparities. Specifically, she is interested in investigating how the mobility patterns of different social groups influence their exposure to varying levels of air pollution and the resulting health risks. Her current projects primarily involve using portable sensors to measure environmental exposure, examining group differences in the health risks of air pollution exposure, and understanding the uncertainties associated with personal exposure assessment methods. She is currently co-advised by Drs. Yoo Min Park and Xiang Chen.

Awards: 

• Peter Gould Paper Award Finalist: Ailing was selected as a finalist for the 2025 AAG Health and Medical Geography Specialty Group Student Paper Competition. 

Master's Student; Currently, a PhD student in Integrated Coastal Programs at East Carolina University

Publications: 

• Opejin, A. & Park, Y.M. (2024). Assessing Bias in Personal Exposure Estimates When Indoor Air Quality is Ignored: A Comparison Between GPS-Enabled Mobile Air Sensor Data and Stationary Sensor Network Data. Science of the Total Environment. 905(1), 175249. 

Awards: 

• National Science Foundation (NSF) Travel Award: Abdulahi received the prestigious NSF Travel Award and an invitation to participate in the Natural Hazard Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) Summer Institute at the University of San Antonio, Texas. He was among five graduate students who received this competitive nationwide award, where he engaged in an NSF grant proposal writing workshop and other workshops with various NHERI facilities that support innovative research on mitigating the impacts of environmental hazards.

Master's Student; Currently, a PhD student in the Department of Geography and Geospatial Sciences at Kansas State University

Publications: 

• Park, Y.M., Chavez, D., Sousan, S., Figueroa-Bernal, N., Alvarez, J.R., & Rocha-Peralta, J. (2023). Personal Exposure Monitoring Using GPS-Enabled Portable Air Pollution Sensors: A Strategy to Promote Citizen Awareness and Behavioral Changes Regarding Indoor and Outdoor Air Pollution. Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, 33(3), 347-357. 

Undergraduate Research Assistant; Currently, a PhD student in the Department of Political Science at West Virginia University

Publications: 

• Baxter, C. & Park, Y.M. (2024). Food Swamp vs. Food Desert: Analysis of Geographic Disparities in Obesity and Diabetes in North Carolina Using GIS and Spatial Regression. The Professional Geographer, 76(4), 409-424.

Awards: 

• Peter Gould Paper Award: Connolly won the paper award in the AAG Health and Medical Geography Specialty Group Student Paper Competition. He presented his research on the food environment (Baxter & Park, 2024) at the 2024 AAG Annual Meeting for the competition. 

Undergraduate Research Assistant; Currently, a Master's student in the Department of Public Health at East Carolina University

Publications: 

• Park, Y.M., Chavez, D., Sousan, S., Figueroa-Bernal, N., Alvarez, J.R., & Rocha-Peralta, J. (2023). Personal Exposure Monitoring Using GPS-Enabled Portable Air Pollution Sensors: A Strategy to Promote Citizen Awareness and Behavioral Changes Regarding Indoor and Outdoor Air Pollution. Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, 33(3), 347-357.