Suah Park, a family nurse practitioner and doctoral student at the University of Washington School of Nursing, has been named a 2026–2027 Magnuson Scholar, one of the most prestigious research honors awarded across UW’s six Health Sciences schools.
Park is among seven scholars selected this year from the Schools of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, and Social Work. For the fourth consecutive year, the endowment’s annual income supported an additional seventh recipient. Each scholar receives $34,000 to advance their education and research.
Bridging the Clinic and the Lab
Park’s research sits at a compelling and underexplored intersection: sleep health, diabetes management, and the lived experience of Korean immigrants. As a practicing clinician at a primary care clinic in Tacoma, Park sees firsthand what the data often misses: the way that disrupted sleep, emotional distress, and fatigue layer on top of the daily challenges of managing type 2 diabetes, compounding an already complex chronic condition.
“Many of my patients struggle not only with glycemic control, but also with fatigue, emotional distress, and disrupted sleep,” Park has noted of her clinical observations. Her research program directly addresses this reality by positioning sleep as a culturally relevant and modifiable pathway to improve diabetes outcomes.
Research That Centers The Margins
Korean immigrants with type 2 diabetes face a particularly high burden of sleep disturbance, compounded by linguistic, cultural, and structural barriers to care. Park’s work is among a small body of research that centers on this population, not as a footnote to broader diabetes studies, but as its primary focus.
Long-term, Park aims to lead interdisciplinary research teams and develop clinical trials of culturally tailored sleep interventions for Korean immigrants with type 2 diabetes. Her vision is to build a sustained research program that reduces health disparities among immigrant and underrepresented populations by informing clinical practice and improving chronic disease management.
Her study examines how socio-contextual factors, including health literacy and the process of acculturation, alongside physical and psychological symptoms such as pain, stress, depression, anxiety, and loneliness, relate to sleep disturbance. A key exploratory aim will examine the relationship between sleep disturbance and glycemic regulation, as measured by hemoglobin A1c.
“Suah is one of the most enthusiastic, productive, determined, and motivated students I have interacted with throughout my academic career. Her ability to formulate arguments both verbally and in writing reflects her outstanding intellectual capacity. She has a strong clinical foundation in the care of Korean immigrants with type 2 diabetes.” — Associate Professor Eeeseung Byun, UW School of Nursing
As an independent nurse scientist, Park seeks to build research that doesn’t just add to the literature — it changes what practitioners do and how patients experience care.
About the Magnuson Scholar Program
The Magnuson Scholar Program is funded by a $2 million endowment established in 1991 through the Warren G. Magnuson Institute for Biomedical Research and Health Professions Training. Senator Warren G. Magnuson represented Washington State in the U.S. Senate from 1944 to 1981, and his career was instrumental in establishing the National Institutes of Health, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Each year, the program recognizes one scholar from each of UW’s Health Sciences schools for outstanding academic performance and potential contributions to research. Per the endowment’s terms, at least one scholar must be engaged in research related to diabetes, its antecedents, or its treatment.
The 2026–2027 Magnuson Scholars represent all six Health Sciences schools: Azeez Fashina (Dentistry), Nayoon Gim and Annika Syvrud (Medicine), Suah Park (Nursing), Ryan Nguyen (Pharmacy), Yuwei Wang (Public Health), and Joanna (Jo) La Torre (Social Work).
Full scholar profiles: hss.washington.edu/magnuson-scholars/current-scholars/
Magnuson Scholar Program: hss.washington.edu/magnuson-scholars/
Media contact: Lisa Plancich | planlis@uw.edu