Emily Ma is a student enrolled in the integrated undergraduate (Psychology B.A.) and Masters of Public Health program at Brown University, U.S.A.. As a junior research fellow at Project Change, she is primarily responsible for graphic and website design, and social media promotion.

In 2020, she participated in a research and advocacy project involving mothers involved/ formerly involved in the criminal-legal and the child welfare system, aiming to provide better psychosocial support and improve their self-efficacy in the legal process. She also volunteered for NGOs in Hong Kong serving single-mother foreign domestic workers, refugees and asylum-seekers, human trafficking victims and prisoners (e.g. PathFinders, Jubilee Ministries, and Voice for Prisoners).

Beginning in 2019, she has worked with students from Peking University School of Health Humanities to conduct research on the psychosocial well-being of rural secondary school students in rural Gansu, China. She led a community-based participatory action research project, Photovoice, with this population. This project aims to understand the psychosocial well-being needs of these students, in order to co-develop and implement a more comprehensive mental health education, and support their teachers in providing psychosocial support to students.

In 2019, she served township youths and children with NGOs in Cape Town, South Africa, and frequently organised mentorship and extra-curricular activities.In 2018, she participated in CADL’s early childhood investment initiative. 2010-2016, she frequently taught at summer camps and conducted family outreach to children in rural China, Taiwan, and Northern Thailand.

She is passionate about community programs and policy advocacy to reduce health and educational disparities, and wishes to do further study in public health and counselling psychology and work on issues of health, immigration, and education in international organisations.