I am 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.

I study the positive development, well-being, and civic engagement of children, adolescents, and youth, especially those from low-income and marginalised/disadvantaged backgrounds. In particular, I examine the familial relationships and community support to which they have access as well as the structural and policy implications of poverty and inequality.

I am working on three primary projects right now (as of December 2021):​

I now run socialservice.sg, a website, podcast, and newsletter (tinyletter.com/socialservicesg) 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):