Jin Yao KWAN

I am an incoming Assistant Professor with the University of Delaware, in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences (College of Education and Human Development). I am also a Research Fellow with The Majurity Trust, a philanthropic organisation in Singapore. Previously, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Graduate School of Social Work, University of Denver.

I graduated with a Ph.D. in social welfare from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Luskin School of Public Affairs under the National University of Singapore (NUS)-Overseas Graduate Scholarship. I previously graduated as valedictorian of the class of 2017 with a Master in Public Policy from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS.

Having worked in non-profit and social work settings with young people from low-income backgrounds, my research agenda centers on: How do we advance the positive development and well-being of under-served adolescents, youth, and emerging adults, especially those who face disadvantages and marginalisation? And through implementation science and evaluation research, how do we improve our interventions? Across two inter-related research areas, I explore how families and communities use institutional supports and also examine structural factors and contextual processes perpetuating poverty and inequality.

I now run socialservice.sg, a website, podcast, and newsletter (socialservicesg.substack.com) dedicated to social service research, practice, and policies in Singapore.

I had a personal socio-political blog (July 2009 to July 2019) which is now archived (guanyinmiao.wordpress.com). I previously also wrote for three now-defunct sites: the “Breakfast Network” in 2013 and “The Middle Ground” from 2015 to 2016 as well as “SALT”, an online publication by the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre in 2014.

These archived posts best represent who I am as a blogger (at my best and worst):