She earned her doctoral degree in design from the University of Minnesota. Kwon's academic research focuses on phenomenology in design: sociocultural aspects of design and meaning of color in healthcare. She teaches interior design studios and research methods at undergraduate and graduate levels. Kwon’s pedagogic approach is in consideration of sociocultural sustainability in design process. She is one of the contributors to the book, The State of the Interior Design Profession(Fairchild, 2010). Kwon holds an interior architect license from the Korea Ministry of Labor. Kwon received the Juran Doctoral Award in 2007 for her work on an integrative design approach to continuous quality development of healthcare environments.