MSW, PhD · Associate Professor, Department of Social Work, Northern Michigan University
My scholarship moves between the macro forces that shape displacement and policy and the micro, lived experience of coping and healing — following how refugees, children, and families build wellbeing across Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, India, and the United States. I welcome collaboration with colleagues working anywhere along that same continuum.
"Trained on three continents, my work asks the same question at every scale: what allows a person, a family, or a community to keep going."
Dr. Cheng is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work at Northern Michigan University, where she has held faculty appointments since 2019. Her doctoral research at Queen Margaret University examined the impact of social connection on the subjective wellbeing of Chinese asylum seekers and refugees in the UK — work that set the course for a research program spanning international social work, child development, mental health counseling and coaching, and coping mechanisms from the level of policy down to the level of the individual.
Her international footprint runs through the University of Edinburgh, City University of Hong Kong, the University of Lucknow and other institutions across India, and the University of North Dakota, alongside professional practice as a Child Advocate in the Minnesota Judicial Branch and, earlier, as a classroom teacher in Hong Kong. This combination of frontline practice, cross-cultural fieldwork, and academic research is the throughline of her scholarship and the basis on which she seeks new collaborations.
Every project fits somewhere on a single continuum — from the systems that govern migration and health, through the communities and families that absorb their effects, to the individual coping strategies that carry a person through.
International social work, migration and refugee policy, global health and development, and the systemic drivers of displacement and inequity.
Social capital and social connection, community resilience, and family systems under the strain of resettlement, trauma, and economic hardship.
Child development, mental health counseling and coaching, subjective wellbeing, and the individual coping mechanisms that sustain people through crisis.
Dissertation: The Impact of Social Connections on Subjective Wellbeing of Chinese Asylum Seekers and Refugees in the UK.
Journal articles and book chapters spanning international social work, refugee wellbeing, and digital tools for youth development.
Selected conference papers, oral presentations, posters, and workshops delivered across nine countries.
Funded work on pandemic coping, refugee wellbeing, and cross-border child protection.
Psychosocial Wellbeing: Pathways to Resilience and Growth in the Aftermath of COVID-19. NMU College Grant, College of Health Science & Professional Studies.
Challenges and Coping Mechanisms during the Pandemic. College of Health Science & Professional Studies, NMU.
Social Mapping Workshops. College of Health Science & Professional Studies, NMU.
Impact of Torture on the Psychosocial Wellbeing of Chinese Political Asylum Seekers in London, Toronto & Philadelphia.
Empathy Building Using Digital Technology for Refugees Undergone Torture. University of Manitoba Seed Grant. Co-Investigator.
Child Trafficking in the Border of Nepal and India. Span International, India. Co-PI.
Resettlement Experiences of Chinese Older Adults in Scotland through oral history.
Santander Community Capacity Grant. Queen Margaret University.
I'm looking to connect with researchers and practitioners working anywhere along the continuum from policy to person: international social work and migration, community resilience and social capital, child development, and mental health counseling, coaching, and coping mechanisms. If your work touches any of these, I would welcome the conversation.