Julia Kim-Cohen, PhD
Senior Lecturer
General and Applied Programs
Contact
Building & Room:
2056B BSB
Address:
1007 W Harrison Street
Office Phone:
Email:
About
Julia Kim-Cohen is a clinical psychologist, scientist, and an award-winning educator with over two decades of experience at UIC and previously at Yale University. She applies innovative strategies such as design thinking and experiential learning in her teaching.
Since 2019, Dr. Kim-Cohen has focused her teaching, mentoring, and community engagement toward addressing the ecological crisis driven by climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. She is a Teaching Sustainability Initiative Fellow at UIC who teaches undergraduates about the human behavioral causes of and mental health consequences of climate change. She serves on the Transformative Scholarship Subcommittee of the Chancellor’s Committee on Sustainability and Energy. In addition to her role as a faculty fellow with the Center for Climate Literacy at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Kim-Cohen is a Climate Wayfinding facilitator and key advisor with The All We Can Save Project.
Before centering her attention on the environmental crisis, Dr. Kim-Cohen’s clinical work involved attachment theory-based interventions to support maltreated children and their caregivers. Her research utilized longitudinal and behavioral genetic approaches to investigate developmental processes in trauma and mental health. She has presented her research nationally and internationally at conferences and invited colloquia, and has published her findings in journals such as Child Development, JAMA Psychiatry (formerly Archives of General Psychiatry), and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. She serves on the editorial board of the journal, Development & Psychopathology and on the reviewer board of The Journal of Climate Change & Health.
Dr. Kim-Cohen holds a BA in Psychology from Stanford University and a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Rochester. She was a predoctoral intern at the Institute of Juvenile Research at UIC. Her postdoctoral fellowship was funded by the NIMH T32 Training Program in Emotion Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at the Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King’s College London UK.
Courses Taught:
HON 201 Climate Wayfinding: Power & Joy in Climate Engagement
PSCH 270 Introduction to Psychological & Behavioral Disorders
PSCH 271 Resilience: The Psychology of Positive Adaptation
PSCH 272 Psychology of Climate Change
PSCH 380 Positive Psychology (Spring 2027)
PSCH 381 Psychology of Interviewing
PSCH 385 Fieldwork in Applied Psychology
Notable Honors
2026, Alumni-in-Residence, Teaching-Learning Studio, Standford University d.school
2026, Silver Circle Award for Teaching Excellence, UIC
2024, Silver Circle Award for Teaching Excellence, UIC
2023, HOPE (Honoring Our Professors’ Excellence) Award, UIC
2022, Silver Circle Award for Teaching Excellence, UIC
2019, Teaching Recognition Program Award, UIC
2019, Sustainability Teaching Fellow, UIC Office of Sustainability
2017, Teaching Scholar, UIC Center for the Advancement of Teaching-Learning Communities
2016, Teaching Scholar, UIC Center for the Advancement of Teaching-Learning Communities
2014, Science Education Fellow, National Academy of Sciences, Yale University
Education
BA, Stanford University
PhD, University of Rochester