Sometimes a personal insight can become a professional epiphany.

Back in 1989, Ailee Moon was an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota specializing in the evaluation and economics of welfare policy. In her spare time, she also volunteered with the Korean community in Minneapolis. Once while attending a funeral for a woman she had assisted, Moon learned that the woman had been the victim of long-term extortion by a young family member. The crime was a factor in the woman's chronic poor health and may well have contributed to her death.

"Why didn't she get help? Why wasn't she helped?" asked Moon, now an associate professor in the Department of Social Welfare in the School of Public Policy and Social Research.

A decade later, after doing hundreds of field interviews, immersing herself in studies and publishing more than a dozen research articles and book chapters, Moon has some solid answers. She is now recognized as an emerging national expert on elder abuse, with a focus on cultural and ethnic differences in perception and tolerance.

Last month, the John A. Hartford Foundation and the Gerontological Society of America selected Moon as one of 10 Social Work Faculty Scholars. Moon will benefit from a $100,000 grant over two years to enhance her expertise and to work with 12 social service agencies in Los Angeles, expanding her research on the cross-cultural factors surrounding elder abuse.

What Moon has painstakingly learned in examining her own community is that "Korean cultural values may be a barrier to elder abuse detection and intervention. These values emphasize solving family problems within the family."

Korean immigrant elderly, compared with their African-American and Caucasian counterparts, are significantly less sensitive to potential elder abuse situations, less likely to seek help and more likely to blame the victims of abuse, Moon found. Moreover, few Korean elderly are familiar with social service agencies.

For her fellowship research, Moon plans to compare Korean-American and Caucasian social service practitioners' perceptions, assessment patterns and cultural factors that influence their work with elderly clients.

"I have never met anyone who works harder or demonstrates more leadership potential than Ailee Moon," said James Lubben, professor of social welfare and urban planning, who was Moon's teacher at UC Berkeley almost 20 years ago. He will serve as institutional sponsor for the Hartford Faculty Institutional Scholars Program.

Moon is part of a department that has a strong specialization in gerontology. Its faculty includes such leaders in the field as Lubben, Associate Dean Fernando Torres-Gil, JoAnn Damron-Rodriguez and department chair A.E. "Ted" Benjamin.

Said Moon, "I enjoy being a 'pioneer' in this area of gerontology."