Soonhee Kim is a Professor of Public Administration at the Korea Development Institute (KDI) School of Public Policy and Management (Sejong, Korea). She has been a Fellow of National Academy of Public Administration (Washington D.C.) since 2016. Professor Kim’s areas of expertise include public management, governance, human resources management, and leadership development. Before she joined in the KDI School in 2014, she was a professor at the Department of Public Administration and International Affairs in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, New York.

Her numerous publications in academic journals (1998-2023) have been recognized as being in the top 2% of social scientists in the world for the years 2023 and 2024 (Elsevier - Stanford University). In addition, her co-authored paper published in Public Administration Review (PAR, 2022, "Platform Government in the Era of Smart Technology") was recognized as one of the top 10 most cited papers published in PAR in 2022 and 2023 (citation data from Clarivate Analytics).

She has been an editorial board member for several leading international academic journals in public administration, and an advisory group member for the OECD Guidelines on Measuring Trust (2017). She was a research team member for the KDI School - OECD collaboration entitled Understanding the Drivers of Trust in Government Institutions in Korea (2018). She is co-editor and chapter author of Bringing Government into the 21st Century: The Korean Digital Governance Experience (2016), Public Administration in the Context of Global Governance (2014), Public Sector Human Resource Management (2012), and The Future of Public Administration around the World: The Minnowbrook Perspective (2010).