Jenny Jiwon Kim

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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Hi, I am a Computer Science Ph.D. student at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, advised by Prof. Koustuv Saha.

My research focuses on AI for mental health and wellbeing, aiming to build language models that support people by combining methods from natural language processing (NLP) and human-computer interaction (HCI).

Specific topics include:

  • Aligning language models with expert therapeutic knowledge
  • Evaluating and improving the safety of AI in mental health conversations
  • Understanding how people perceive and engage with AI in mental health contexts

news

Aug, 2026 🎉 Two papers accepted to the EMNLP 2026 main conference! Check out LLUMI and our work on AI psychosis.
May, 2026 Very excited to attend ICWSM 2026! I will be presenting our work on AI content moderation in therapy conversations and PAIR-SAFE at the Digital Minds Workshop.
Aug, 2025 🎓 Started my Ph.D. in Computer Science at UIUC.

selected publications

  1. peerpen.png
    PeerPen: AI-Assisted Writing for Online Mental Health Peer Support
    Jiwon Kim , Sherry Gong, Maya Ajit, Soorya Ram Shimgekar, Yunhao Yuan, Dong Whi Yoo, Eshwar Chandrasekharan, and Koustuv Saha
    Preprint, 2026
    Paper
  2. Oral
    llumi.png
    LLUMI: Improving LLM Writing Assistance for Mental Health Support with Online Community Feedback
    Jiwon Kim , Maya Ajit, Sherry Gong, Soorya Ram Shimgekar, Dong Whi Yoo, Eshwar Chandrasekharan, and Koustuv Saha
    EMNLP, 2026
    Paper
  3. pairsafe.png
    PAIR-SAFE: A Paired-Agent Approach for Runtime Auditing and Refining AI-Mediated Mental Health Support
    Jiwon Kim , Violeta J. Rodriguez, Dong Whi Yoo, Eshwar Chandrasekharan, and Koustuv Saha
    Preprint, 2026
    Paper