Dr. Michael Kim is an internationally acclaimed concert pianist and academic leader whose career bridges performance, education, and community engagement. He earned both his Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School. Renowned for his expressive artistry, Dr. Kim has performed as concerto soloist with major orchestras and as recitalist and chamber musician across North America, Europe, and Asia—often appearing with his wife, pianist, and Western University professor, Dr. Kyung Kim.

Dr. Kim has held senior administrative roles across North America, including Director of the School of Music at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Vice-President (External) and Dean of Music at Brandon University, and now Dean of the Don Wright Faculty of Music at Western University. At Western, he leads more than 650 students and 125 faculty and staff, advancing a strategic plan focused on excellence in research and teaching, equity and inclusion, and community partnerships.

Dedicated to mentoring the next generation, he continues to inspire young Korean Canadians to pursue their dreams with creativity, purpose, and pride—championing the arts as a force for cultural connection and innovation.

Dr. Jiwon Oh is a staff neurologist, scientist, and Medical Director of the Barlo Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Program at St. Michael’s Hospital, University of Toronto and specializes in the care of people living with MS. Dr. Oh’s research focuses on developing advanced MRI techniques in for use in clinical settings, and the development of large datasets. She leads the MRI research program at St. Michael’s Hospital, and is the principal investigator on numerous local and multi-center collaborative studies, including the Canadian Prospective Cohort Study to Understand Progression in MS (CanProCo), which is a national prospective cohort study designed to better understand progression in MS. Dr. Oh is one of the founding members of the North American Imaging in MS Cooperative (NAIMS) representing a multi-national collaborative MRI research endeavor in MS with over 40 sites in North America. She cares for a large practice of people living with MS, and has overseen the development of the Barlo MS program into a thriving clinical and research program. She is deeply committed to caring for people with MS, educating future generations of clinicians and scientists, and in particular being a role model as a woman leader in medicine and science, and contributing to scientific developments that will drive the field forward. 

Jiwon is a past KCSF scholarship recipient, which makes being the recipient of this year’s KCSF Dream Tree award even more meaningful to her. This is a testament to the importance of organizations like KCSF supporting young scholars at pivotal stages of their career.