I am a PhD candidate at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Luskin School of Public Affairs – under the National University of Singapore (NUS)-Overseas Graduate Scholarship – who graduated as valedictorian of the class of 2017 with a Master in Public Policy from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS.

My work broadly focuses on the positive development and well-being of adolescents and young adults, especially those from low-income and marginalised families. In particular, I examine the familial and community relationships to which they have access. Another research interest of mine includes youth civic engagement, which I study using the positive youth development framework.

I am working on three primary projects right now (as of February 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):