Dr. Park was born and grew up in Seoul, South Korea and attended undergraduate and graduate school (MS) at the Seoul National University, majoring in Pharmacy. She then came to the University of Wisconsin, Madison to attain her Ph.D. degree. She chose to study pharmacy because her father wanted her to have a major with job security and her brother was already studying pharmacy as well. She liked studying pharmacy because she liked knowing that she could potentially help others with their health. By the time she graduated with her MS degree, she wanted to reach more people, so she decided to study Food Science.