Jiwon Nam-Speers
assistant professor
School of Public and International Affairs
Contact Information:
Phone: 410.837.5539
E-mail: jnam@ubalt.edu
YouTube channel: Mama’s Fast-Track Statistics
Ph.D., Ph.D., Public Administration and Policy, Florida State University (FSU), Seoul National University
Ph.D., M.S., Measurement & Statistics, FSU
M.Ed., B.Ed., Seoul National University of Education
Jiwon Nam-Speers' C.V. (.pdf)
My research deals with public policy issues, focusing on educational outcomes for low-performing minority at-risk students and social factors using large-scale national databases. I am also working on issues in community resilience in local, state, federal and/or global settings. I am interested in how governance in the broad sense affects each phase of policy—from agenda-setting and public-service delivery to policy outputs and outcomes, particularly with coproduction.
My doctoral dissertation is titled “Citizen Perception of Risk Acceptability: Mediating and Moderating Effects in a Nuclear Facility Siting Process.” The collected data were analyzed to develop measurement models of the determinants of acceptable risk using a full structural model. The results of citizen surveys demonstrated that the impact of a collectively shared concern for nuclear stigmatization on trust in local government depended on trust in the national government. The findings enriched my understanding that national and local governments played different roles in promoting citizens’ risk acceptability of a nuclear power plant, at least in the planning stage of the facility. The dissertation research has appeared in Social Science Journal recently. Additionally, several working papers of mine are either currently under review or in preparation for submission soon.
While I was a graduate student at FSU, I also served as a psychometrician and data analyst in the Florida State Department of Education. We administered the Florida Comprehensive Assessment and Test to K-12 students in Florida, scored the exams and analyzed trends on demographics. Specifically, my interest has been developed in terms of how inherent selection bias can be reduced in observational data settings to improve identification of the biased estimate of a causal effect. I have also worked on several grant projects related to the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation. I have served as a reviewer of the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) Grant Program of the NSF since 2018.
I teach advanced analytical techniques, such as general linear models, structural equation modeling, meta-analysis, hierarchical linear modeling, propensity score matching, and regression discontinuity design, as well as a doctoral research seminar. If you have a topic and don't know how to implement it academically, find me and share the story. As you approach the realization of your dream at UB, I am sure I will be the definitive cornerstone.