Dr. Weiwen Zeng is a postdoctoral fellow at the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy. He graduated with his PhD in Social Work from the University of Texas at Austin in 2023.
Weiwen's interests in disability-related issues are grounded in his practice and experience as a clinical social worker. For over four years, he was in direct practice with families of individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities (DD) in medical and residential care settings in Hong Kong. Inspired by his clinical experiences, his research focuses on using advanced statistical methods to identify underlying mechanisms that drive salient health challenges/disparities faced by minoritized families of individuals with autism/DD across the lifespan and, subsequently, to develop innovative and evidence-based intervention programs that address these challenges/disparities.
Weiwen's academic work has appeared in several peer-reviewed journals including Autism, Annals of Epidemiology, and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Prior to coming to the U.S. for his doctorate, he received his MSSc and BSW degrees from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Shenzhen University in China, respectively.