Heeyeon Son

Biography

Dr. Son earned her PhD from the Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. She received her MSN (Nursing Education) from the University of Texas at Austin, Austin Texas, and BSN degrees from Cha University, Seoul Korea.

Currently, Dr. Son is an Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee College of Nursing. She teaches undergraduate-level fundamental nursing research course. Her research program focuses on understanding family dynamics in the childhood cancer context to improve adjustment and coping among youth with cancer. Specifically, she is interested in studying parent-adolescent communication/ relationship and how the quality of parent-child communication contributes to increased use of courageous coping among youth with cancer. During her doctoral program, she focused on understanding parent-adolescent communication in the Korean childhood cancer context and examined the relationship between engagement in open and less problematic parent-child communication and use of courageous coping. Her doctoral studies were funded from American Cancer Society. Recently, she and her research team were awarded a research grant from the Trinity Health Foundation for the proposal entitled of “Improving Coping with Cancer among Youth in East Tennessee.” Additionally, she is also selected to be a member of Research Development Academy Cohort in 2023 at the University of Tennessee Knoxville.

Dr. Son actively participates in several professional pediatric oncology nursing organizations.  She also serves as a reviewer for several peer reviewed journals in her area of expertise.