Nakyung Rhee joined NASAA in 2020 as a part-time research fellow and became a research associate in 2021. She works as part of the research team to create compelling data visualizations, conduct surveys, manage and analyze data, and communicate findings relevant to state arts agency budgets, staffing, grants, and NASAA internal evaluations.
Nakyung is a researcher and arts administrator, specializing in arts management and cultural policy analysis. Her core research interest is in the arts and health, aiming at improving communication in multidisciplinary collaborations in the arts and/for/in other areas. Within the broad domain, her theoretical work focuses on creative aging for lifelong arts engagement and learning across all ages, with an emphasis on the instrumental and instructional values of the arts. Nakyung has worked as an independent researcher assisting nonprofit arts organizations in research and data management. She previously served as a program associate/research specialist for Snow City Arts, a nonprofit organization that provides arts and educational programs to children in hospitals in Chicago. Nakyung majored in business administration and minored in art history at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea. She holds her M.A. and Ph.D. in arts administration, education and policy from the Ohio State University, with specialization in cultural policy and arts management, museum education and administration, and aging studies.
