Amy Pei-Lung Yu

Amy Pei-Lung Yu is a doctoral student at The University of Texas at Austin Steve Hicks School of Social Work and a recipient of the Michael R. Daley Endowed Presidential Scholarship for Doctoral Students. Amy obtained a Bachelor of Arts from Simon Fraser University in Canada and a Master of Social Work from the University of Southern California (USC) with a concentration in Community Organizing, Planning, and Administration. While at USC, she was awarded the Dean’s Award for Excellence and Innovation with a retroactive scholarship. Amy has eight years of experience working with persons with disabilities of all ages and various types/degrees of disability with a focus on improving the person’s and the family’s quality of life, as a practitioner in her earlier career and recently as a researcher. She has also worked with persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities and persons with rare diseases, both are significantly under-served and under-researched populations. Amy’s primary area of research is in family well-being and parenting for marginalized families of persons with disabilities.

Amy was one of the pioneers to move forth the first community-living person-centered service model for adults with intellectual disabilities in Taiwan. Using Schalock and Verdugo’s Quality of Life (QoL) concepts as a theoretical framework, Amy led an interdisciplinary team in research and design, developed and adapted a culturally appropriate service model. She was specially trained in adapting and administrating standardized QoL measurement tools, namely, the Support Intensity Scale, Personal Outcome Scale, and San Martin Scale, and program evaluation. With this expertise, she was invited to train nationally for direct service staff at nonprofit and county governmental agencies. Amy has co-authored several peer-reviewed articles both in English and Chinese on the adaptation and administration of QoL measurement tools for individuals with disabilities, and in the application of mobile integrated care for older adults and individuals with rare diseases. Her publications in English be found in Society for Social Work and Research, Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, and Research in Developmental Disabilities. Amy has also co-translated and culturally adapted two internationally validated QoL measurement scales, one of which is published and used across many agencies in Taiwan.

Amy is currently working with Dr. Sandy Magaña, Professor in Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities and the Executive Director at Texas Center for Disability Studies, on the Autism Consortium of Texas LEND (ACT LEND) project. She is particularly passionate about systemic inequities on issues regarding quality of life, involvement, and community living for persons with disabilities. Amy aspires to become an interdisciplinary scholar that develops outcome-oriented translational research, and a committed educator for the next generation of social workers.