Sunny Jeong joined the faculty at the Business Administration Department of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009 after earning her Ph.D. in sports, recreation and tourism and her M.S. in library and information science from the University of Illinois. She also holds an M.Ed. and B.A. in Geography Education from Seoul National University. Her research and teaching interests are the sustainable development of social enterprises, social entrepreneurs’ social network strategies, community based tourism development, service learning, and social justice.

She served on the committee of Philanthropic Innovations Forum (Social Entrepreneur Incubator) and consults students’ new social venture development on campus (L3C, 501(C)3 corporation). She has led International Business Plan Competition concerning sustainability in Seoul (2009), London (2010), and Brazil (2011). She received a Social Justice Award (McAlister Fellowship) from Graduate School of Library Information Science in 2006.