Dr. Cao “Niki” Fang is an assistant professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin. She earned her MSW from Peking University and a second MSW from the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor, and her Ph.D. in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to her doctoral training, she worked as a behavioral therapist for autistic children in China, an experience that shaped her enduring commitment to family-centered disability research.
Dr. Fang’s research examines how families raising autistic children and children with other developmental disabilities navigate caregiving across education, intervention, and healthcare systems. Her work centers on parent engagement, caregiver mental health, and family resilience, with a focus on developing equitable and culturally responsive service models. She is actively integrating AI-based methods into her research, exploring their potential to generate new insights into family experiences and service delivery in the disability field. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals across social work, autism research, and family psychology.