Dawon Oh

Dawon Oh is a third-year doctoral student at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Her research focuses on transportation, specifically the travel behavior and accessibility of people with different needs when they travel, such as women, caregivers, and children. Even though she holds a transportation engineer license from South Korea, she’s not a big fan of vehicle traffic; she’s more interested in active travel, including walking and cycling. Her recent research focuses on the difference in caregivers' pedestrian route choices when escorting children to school or not. She's also interested in the mode choices of caregivers when they are accompanied by the children, depending on the destination of the trip.   She’s a 2024–25 Doctoral Fellow of the Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative, and her work has been supported by the Harvard Real Estate Grant, the BK21 Government Scholarship, and others. Prior to joining the Doctor of Design (DDes) program, she worked at an engineering firm and the Seoul Metropolitan Government. She also worked as a researcher at Seoul National University's Institute for Sustainable Development and Environmental Planning. Her previous research projects and papers are archived here: https://dawonoh.com/.   She holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering (BE) from Chung Ang University in Seoul, South Korea, and a master’s degree in urban planning (MUP) from Seoul National University in Seoul, South Korea. She did her PhD at Seoul National University but didn’t defend the dissertation and joined Harvard GSD.