Category:Bihun, Oksana

• Detailed biography: Oksana Hryhorivna Bihun was born in Ukraine. In 1993, she graduated from the Kos-Anatolsky Music School in Lviv, class of piano and bandura (Ukrainian folk instrument akin to a harp). Upon graduating from high school with honors in 1996, she studied at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine. She regularly organized or participated in concerts and theatrical performances, singing and playing bandura or piano. She received her specialist degree in applied mathematics with honors and two distinctions of excellence in 2001.

Oksana Bihun then worked as a teaching assistant while pursuing graduate studies (aspirantura) at the same university until 2003, singing in the Galician Chamber Choir "Yevshan" under the direction of Ihor Dankovsky.

Dr. Bihun then traveled across the ocean to the United States of America to join the University of Missouri, Columbia. In 2005, she earned her Master's degree in applied math, and in 2009, Oksana Bihun graduated from the same university with a Ph.D. in mathematics.

Dr. Bihun then worked at Concordia College and the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, as a math professor. She published numerous research papers in peer-reviewed journals and taught a wide range of courses. This work led to her earning tenure in 2019 and being nominated for a teaching award by 20 students. In the meantime, she published two books of poetry in Ukrainian: Anticipation of Christmas and Distance to the Border - Labyrinth (Kamenyar and Spolom houses in Lviv). In 2018, she was accepted to the National Society of Writers of Ukraine.

After facing challenges in a male-dominated academic setting, Dr. Bihun resigned in 2020 to pursue a more supportive environment. She started taking graduate classes in clinical mental health counseling. In 2022, her book Underwork Yourself: How to Combine Self-care and Work was published on Amazon.

Dr. Bihun worked as an instructor at the Fargo Sylvan Learning Center from 2022 to 2025 and as an AI trainer in math and coding since 2023. She has been singing with the Fargo-Moorhead Choral Artists under the direction of Dr. Michael Culloton since 2022.

Dr. Bihun's choral works include Salve Regina (in Italian) and the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (in Ukrainian). Her piano compositions include the pieces "Ukraine" and "Wedding March."