Cheng Chow

Cheng Chow is a doctoral student at the School of Social Work, The University of Texas at Austin, and a recipient of the Graduate School Fellowship. He completed his Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Social Work and Social Administration at The University of Hong Kong and his Bachelor of Social Science in Sociology with First Class Honors at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Born and raised in a migrant family, Cheng experienced marginalization, discrimination, and exclusion first as a left-behind child of migrant parents and later as an immigrant himself. These personal experiences motivate his lifelong commitment to advocating for (im)migrant communities.

Cheng currently leads a community-engaged health assessment project among Asian and Asian American communities, supported by the St. David’s Center for Health Promotion & Disease Prevention Research in Underserved Populations (St. David’s CHPR) and the Health Communication Scholars Program (HCSP). This project builds on collaborations with community organizations to disaggregate data, amplify underrepresented voices, and inform culturally responsive health interventions. Previously, Cheng served as a community outreach coordinator supporting immigrant integration and advocating for their rights. He later became a regional migration health officer at the International Organization for Migration (IOM, UN Migration Agency), where he collaborated with WHO, UNICEF, UNHCR, and other international partners to deliver comprehensive health programs aimed at improving the physical, mental, and social well-being of migrants and vulnerable populations. Cheng has also engaged in humanitarian efforts to provide health assistance to crisis-affected populations, including those experiencing forced migration in low-resource settings.

As a social work researcher, Cheng aims to serve and empower immigrants as well as racial and ethnic minorities by investigating: 1) how power structures, civil discrimination, and other institutional factors contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in health outcomes; 2) how social policy reflects and shapes an ideological environment that interacts with other social determinants of health and impacts community well-being; and 3) how to achieve global health equity by including immigrants, refugees, and other vulnerable populations in comprehensive health frameworks for action.

Cheng is proud to be a first-generation college graduate and has been awarded the APPAM Equity & Inclusion Student Fellowship and the Stephen Joseph Tripodi Endowed Excellence Scholarship. His work has appeared in migration and health journals such as Social Science & Medicine and Health Policy. The latter earned him the W. Parker Frisbie Outstanding Publication Award. Cheng strives to translate research into community resources, fostering an environment of inclusivity and social justice for immigrants and other marginalized populations. Fittingly, his name Cheng translates into social justice in his native language, and he aspires to inspire the next generation to become changemakers for greater social impact.