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Biography

Professor Jin-Sun Yoon has been a faculty member in the School of Child and Youth Care at the ӣ��Ӱ�� since 2002. As a parent of two double-raced offspring raised on the traditional territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees), Xwsepsum (Esquimalt), and W̱SÁNEĆ (Saanich) peoples – also known as ӣ��Ӱ��, BC – and as the child of Korean parents who survived Japanese colonization and the Korean War, Jin-Sun brings a deeply personal and political lens to her lifelong commitment to antiracism, decolonizing praxis, and social justice advocacy.

Jin-Sun’s teaching is rooted in practical pedagogy and community-engaged learning, inspiring students and front-line practitioners to deepen their decolonizing impact. Many students in the School of Child and Youth Care engage in learning-in-place, joining online from across Turtle Island and beyond. This distributed learning model fosters a national and global exchange of ideas and practices, amplifying the reach and influence of decolonial ethics in diverse communities. Learning-in-place further supports local communities to build community capacity for exceptional practitioners.

Jin-Sun’s professional journey is both transdisciplinary and unorthodox, shaped by a wide-ranging career across multiple sectors and countries—including Korea, Japan, Germany, England, and Denmark. The breadth of practice experience across the lifespan including early childhood development, youth mental health, unhoused youth, single-parent families, immigrant and refugee settlement, and elder and foster home care supervision placed Jin-Sun as strong fit in the School of Child and Youth Care faculty complement.

With an academic foundation in counselling psychology that has fueled a lifelong commitment to working alongside historically marginalized populations that includes neurodivergent youth, international students, and racialized, queer, and Indigenous communities. This diverse and global background informs Jin-Sun’s intersectional, cross-sectoral, and community-engaged teaching praxis—one that bridges theory and lived experience, and centers equity, relational accountability, anti-racism, and social justice.

In both online and on-campus classrooms, Jin-Sun fosters critical reflection by encouraging students to develop their racial literacy, interrogate their social positionality, and engage with decolonial ethics in their practice. Beyond the classroom, Jin-Sun has held leadership roles in feminist grassroots organizations, including the award-winning antidote: Multiracial and Indigenous Girls and Women’s Network. At the ӣ��Ӱ��, they co-chaired the Minority and Indigenous Women’s Instructor Network and served as Chair of the Academic Women’s Caucus. Jin-Sun’s unwavering commitment to equity-deserving communities is reflected in their extensive service on numerous university committees dedicated to justice, equity, diversity, decolonization, and inclusion.

Jin-Sun’s past community involvement includes serving on numerous university, government, and community committees, such as the Vancouver Island Regional Advisory Council, the Ethno-Cultural Advisory Council for the BC Ministry of Children and Family Development, and the board of the Inter-Cultural Association of Greater ӣ��Ӱ��. Jin-Sun is frequently sought after as a consultant across health and education sectors, recognized for their extensive experience and the pragmatic application of their intersectional and decolonizing frameworks.

Jin-Sun has delivered keynote addresses at over a dozen national conferences, focusing on Indigenous–immigrant settler relations, decolonization and equity, and racial identity and youth mental health and community care. A career highlight has been the collaboration with the leadership at ȽÁU, WELṈEW̱ Tribal School where they co-developed professional development initiatives for staff that included trauma and violence-informed care approaches, lateral violence to lateral kindness, and culturally responsive teaching for non-Indigenous educators.

Internationally, Jin-Sun has partnered with University College Copenhagen on inter-professional education projects. Born in South Korea and raised on the overlapping territories of scəw̓aθən (Tsawwassen), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), and other Coast Salish Peoples, Jin-Sun completed their graduate studies in Counselling Psychology at the University of British Columbia (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm). Their research focused on ethnic identity development as a racialized minority in Canada, a theme that led them to Critical Race Theory and in developing racial literacy, all of which informs their teaching, applied research, and praxis.

Jin-Sun’s contributions to teaching and community leadership have been recognized with several awards:

• Teaching Excellence Award, Faculty of Human and Social Development, awarded to a faculty member within each Faculty unit across the ӣ��Ӱ�� (2011)
• Harry Hickman Award for Teaching Excellence and Educational Leadership, awarded to one faculty member annually across all Faculties at UVic (2014)
• 3M National Teaching Fellowship a prestigious lifetime membership awarded to ten top educators per year across Canadian universities for academic innovation and leadership by the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (2015)

Jin-Sun’s most cherished professional accomplishment is the enduring connection with former students, especially those who continue to challenge and dismantle oppressive systems in their communities long after graduation. Her faith in the next generation of practitioners is continually renewed with each cohort she has the privilege to teach – each one inspiring renewed hope for climate justice, social equity, and a decolonized future for children, youth, families, and communities across Turtle Island and beyond.