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What are the consequences of self-stigmatization among people with disabilities? That’s one of the questions Heerak Choi, PhD, a research fellow in the Center for Education and Health Sciences at Northwestern University, seeks to answer. She is mentored by Allen Heinemann, PhD, Director, Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research (CROR) at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, and an expert on rehabilitation psychology. Aaron Kaat, PhD, Associate Professor, in the Department of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and Lucy Bilaver, PhD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern also serve as mentors.
“Many individuals with a disability have some degree of self-stigma,” explains Choi. “We want to understand how different degrees of self-stigma affect psychosocial functioning.”
Self-stigma can include internalized shame or negative attitudes people hold about themselves and can negatively affect how a person interacts with others. Choi and Heinemann, together with their colleagues, have produced a manuscript on their findings which is currently undergoing peer-review for a professional journal.
Choi will present some of the findings at RehabWeek, a conference devoted to rehabilitation research that will be held in Chicago in May 2025. Her poster, “Unveiling Self-Stigma in Transition-Age Youth with Disabilities: Profiles and Implications,” was selected for oral presentation at the conference.
Choi meets with Heinemann bi-weekly. “He provides resources, answers questions, and helps connect me with other people in research with similar interests,” says Choi.
“It’s been an absolute delight and privilege to serve as a mentor for Heerak,” says Heinemann. “She has made valuable contributions to our team’s study of barriers to and facilitators of employment from the perspective of employers. She took the lead on conceptualizing, developing, and analysis of a dataset composed of 2,000 supervisors, managers, and human resource staff and she brought her technical and analytic expertise in developing a novel report.”
Choi’s work on facilitators and barriers to maintaining long-term employment among people with physical disabilities is part of CROR’s Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Employment and People with Physical Disabilities. Choi and her colleagues in the Center are working on manuscripts describing findings of a national survey of employers of people with disabilities. The survey asked about perceived challenges, strategies, and policies related to employing, retaining and promoting employees with disabilities.
Choi completed her undergraduate education at Handong Global University in Pohang, South Korea, where she studied counseling psychology and social work. She studied clinical rehabilitation counseling for her master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and went on to earn her PhD at Michigan State University in counselor education and supervision.
Choi hopes to gain more research experience at Northwestern University and eventually join the faculty.