Grace Eunhye Ko

Grace (Eunhye) Ko is a Bullard Postdoctoral Fellow collaborating with Professor Earl Huff Jr. As a learning scientist and HCI researcher, she designs human-centered AI systems that expand access to education and healthcare. Her work bridges learning sciences, instructional design, and AI to advance educational equity and improve wellbeing. Through participatory design and mixed methods research, she focuses on three key areas: creating engaging and inclusive AI tutors for K–16 and higher education, reimagining AI literacy for marginalized groups such as older adults and K–12 parents, and developing AI-enhanced interventions for healthcare training and mental health support.

Grace also collaborates with Dr. Ying Ding at the AI in Healthcare Lab to design GenAI-based chatbots that support older adults’ mental health and wellbeing. Her studies investigate how AI can provide trustworthy, empathetic, and clinically informed emotional support while addressing safety and ethical challenges. She is also working with medical partners to explore AI platforms for palliative care counseling and clinical education.

Grace earned her Ph.D. in Learning Technologies from the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Education in 2024, with an interdisciplinary portfolio in Information Science and Ethical AI. Utilizing the value-sensitive design framework, her dissertation examined the design of AI-based tutoring systems, showing how student-centered and transparent AI can strengthen trust, agency, and learning outcomes.