Dohyo Jeong is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the College of Medicine at the University of Kentucky. His research focuses on regional disparities in public health risks, healthcare accessibility, and policy responses, with particular attention to how environmental and socioeconomic conditions relate to differences in local policy needs. His work examines the opioid epidemic and other public health challenges, applying spatial machine learning, econometrics, Bayesian analysis, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to investigate geographic variations in health outcomes, public service provision, and policy effectiveness.
His current research includes two major projects:
Rapid Actionable Data for Opioid Response in Kentucky (RADOR-KY): Modeling spatial patterns of EMS responses to opioid overdoses to identify regional disparities and inform data-driven emergency response policy.
geoPIPE (Geospatial Pipeline for Enhancing Open Data for Substance Use Disorders Research): Analyzing spatial distributions and clustering of fatal overdoses, linking social determinants and policy contexts to support AI-enabled public health decision-making.
The research interests include:
Environmental Conditions and Public Health: Examining how environmental conditions and exposures, including extreme temperatures, relate to spatial variations in health risks. This research considers differences in local environmental and socioeconomic contexts and their implications for regional policy needs.
Public Health and Policy Evaluation: Evaluating policies and interventions addressing opioid overdoses and other public health challenges, with an emphasis on geographic disparities in healthcare accessibility, service delivery, and policy outcomes.
Policy Spillover Effects: Investigating how policy impacts and public service conditions extend across administrative boundaries. This research uses spatial econometrics, causal inference, and machine learning to examine geographic interdependence and potential spillover effects.
Health Systems Planning and Resource Allocation: Analyzing regional differences in healthcare demand, service availability, and accessibility. This work integrates geographic and demographic information with quantitative modeling to inform the distribution of medical and emergency response resources.
Dr. Jeong earned his Ph.D. in Public Policy and Political Economy from the University of Texas at Dallas, where his dissertation examined regional disparities in global public health systems. His work has been recognized with several awards, including the Outstanding Graduate Student Award from the UT Dallas Dean of Graduate Education (2025), the 1st Prize in the Student Paper Award from the American Society for Public Administration (2025), the Dean of Graduate Education Dissertation Research Award (2024), and the 2nd Prize in the Student Paper Award from the American Society for Public Administration (2024).
Dohyo Jeong is a highly motivated researcher committed to advancing equitable health policy through innovative methods and interdisciplinary collaboration. His dedication to applying data-driven strategies ensures that his research contributes to building stronger, fairer, and more resilient health systems.
Research Topic:
Public Health
Policy Spillover Effects
- Community Disparities
- Resource Allocation
Methodology Topic:
- Spatial-Temporal Causal Inference
- Bayesian Inference
- Machine Learning
- Geographic Information Science (GIS)
- Spatial Econometrics
Awards, Scholarships and Honors
Outstanding Graduate Student Award (PhD) in The University of Texas at Dallas (2025)
1st prize in Student Paper Award Issued by Section on Korean Public Administration of American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) (Apr 2025)
Dean of Graduate Education Dissertation Research Award in The University of Texas at Dallas (May 2024)
2nd prize in Student Paper Award Issued by Section on Korean Public Administration of American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) (Apr 2024)
President Travel Award for Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM), The Korean Association for Policy Studies (Fall, 2023)
Awarded Government and Political Science Fellowship in University of Texas at Dallas (Spring, 2023)
Nominated for President’s Teaching Excellence Awards in University of Texas at Dallas (Spring, 2023)
Awards 3rd prize in the treatise contest by the Korea Institute of Public Finance (Sep. 2022)
Awards for Excellent Records, Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea (Feb. 2019)
Awards The 3rd Report for Korea National Tax Administration Policy Proposal Contest, National Tax Service (Nov. 2018)
Academic Excellence Scholarship, Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea (Fall 2018)
Academic Excellence Scholarship, Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea (Spring 2018)
Academic Excellence Scholarship, Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea (Fall 2017)
An Excellent-grade Scholarship, Seokyeong University, South Korea (Fall 2016)
An Excellent-grade Scholarship, Seokyeong University, South Korea (Spring 2016)