Hi! I'm Jihye Baek, a PhD Candidate in Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. 

Some of the most profound forms of suffering are invisible — a quiet sense of disconnection from the people and places around you. That observation, grounded in years of practice as a social worker conducting home visits and coordinating care for older adults, is what brought me to research. I view social isolation and loneliness not as individual outcomes, but as structural ones: shaped by where people live, who their neighbors are, and what resources surround them.

I examine social isolation and loneliness in later life through a systems perspective: how individual circumstances, community environments, and macro-level structures interact to shape social connection. Within that framework, my work focuses on housing and neighborhood contexts as particularly consequential, yet understudied determinants. 

My dissertation, "A Place-Based Examination of Social Isolation and Loneliness in Later Life," is the fullest expression of this agenda. My goal is not only to describe disparities, but to generate evidence that can inform where and how we build environments that sustain social connection.