Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month: Han Brings World of Experience to Graduate Program
May is Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month. This month, Bellevue University pays tribute to the generations of Asian and Pacific Islanders who have enriched America's history and are instrumental in its future success.
Dr. Inhyun Han represents the type of real-world experience Bellevue University students can count on to help them in their own careers. A native Korean, she has a wealth of experience in the corporate, government and education sectors.
Her previous experience includes: working as an educational consultant who helped high school students apply to college and determine their majors; large-scale project management at Samsung; designing organizational structure as an analyst at a human resources consulting firm; and affecting policy by researching affirmative action for women at the largest research agency in the Korean government.
She learned a lot about organizational culture and structure along the way, she received research training from the University of Virginia (Ph.D. in Business Administration) and applied this knowledge teaching management and organizational behavior at Pepperdine University in California.
Shifting Her Teaching Career
With the uncertainty of COVID-19, Han was excited to embrace the opportunity to move to Nebraska to work at Bellevue University. Since she began Aug. 1, she’s been working with Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) students as their doctoral research project advisor.
“The program is all online, with students everywhere, and I loved the chance to research and collaborate with students who have real-world industrial experiences,” she said. “That’s what attracted me to this position. Bellevue University offers a new way of innovative teaching for students who work full time, and I am excited to help them enhance their management skills.”
A Specialty Fueled by Interest in Human Nature
Having worked in several industries and two different countries, Dr. Han’s innate interest in human nature is what led her to where she is today. As an undergraduate, she chose a double major in English Literature and Social Science.
“I wanted to be a novelist because I’ve always been curious about human nature,” Han said. “I decided to pursue a Ph.D. in Business so tha I could make a bigger difference in social science. The intersection between human nature and social science impacts how a company operates.”
In the diversity of her experiences, Dr. Han has found that inefficient organizational structure can negatively impact any company.
“One of the problems I’ve found both in Korea and America is that communication between departments and between people can be ineffective because of poorly designed organizational structure,” she said. These are lessons she is able to pass on to her students.
Giving Students the Best Experience Possible
In the DBA program, Dr. Han has already been helping students refine their research and collaborate with doctoral student projects.
Dr. Han will work with each student over the course of three years, as they complete their DBA programs. Each doctoral project is based on finding solutions to an organizational problem, and many of the students base their topics on their real-world work experience. This will ultimately help them become stronger in their careers. “Conducting application-based research and writing a research paper in management helps them become an expert in that area,” Han said.
To set up her students for success, Dr. Han has put extra time into getting to know each one. “My focus is on how I can deliver high-quality online courses as a faculty member, so that students have a meaningful learning experience,” she said.