Hae Sun Kim, PhD, MT-BC is an assistant professor of music therapy at the University of Iowa. Originally from Seoul, South Korea, Kim earned her PhD in music therapy from the University of Iowa. She also completed her MM in neurologic music therapy at Colorado State University and BM in music therapy from the University of Iowa.  

Kim’s research interests include music perception and enjoyment of individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing and educating music therapists and students through online simulation-integrated education. She served as a head graduate research assistant in the Music Perception Laboratory in the Cochlear Implant Clinical Research Center at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics from 2019-2022. Kim has been integrally involved in the development of online webpages about music and hearing loss that are a part of the Iowa Head and Neck Protocols. For her work on the Head and Neck Protocols, she received the Iowa Otolaryngology Resident Protocols Award in 2021 as the first and only non-physician to have received this honor.  

Kim’s clinical background includes working with a wide variety of ages and populations, including children and adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities, adults with neurological disorders, and patients and their family members in end-of-life care in the US and South Korea. She also provided music therapy services and adaptive piano, violin, and guitar lessons to children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. Kim also served as a graduate teaching assistant during her doctoral studies at the University of Iowa.