Dr. Julie Park is associate professor of Sociology and the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Maryland. She currently serves as the Director of Asian American Studies. She is also a faculty associate of the Maryland Population Research Center (MPRC). Prior to joining the Maryland faculty in 2008, she was a research assistant professor in the School of Policy, Planning, and Development and the associate director of the Population Dynamics Research Group at the University of Southern California. She received her Ph.D. (2003) and M.A. (2001) in sociology as well as a Masters in Urban Planning (1998) from the University of Southern California. She received her B.A. in sociology at the University of California, Davis. Professor Park's research focuses most broadly on the adaptation process of immigrants in the United States which includes the areas of immigration, demography, race, and urban studies. Specifically, she examines how immigrants improve their socioeconomic status with longer duration in the U.S. She also utilizes an innovative cohort method to assess intergenerational mobility across immigrant generations. Second, she considers how residential segregation changes in new and established immigrant gateways. Lastly, she assesses the health and health care access assimilation process of immigrants. Professor Park currently teaches courses in immigration, Asian Americans Studies, and social demography. Other undergraduate courses include Asian American Public Policy and Interethnic Diversity in the West. She has also taught the following graduate courses: Urban Demography and Growth, Urban Diversity and Communication, and Statistics and Arguing from Data.