About
Xiaoyi Zeng (She/Her) is a doctoral student at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin, and a social work advocate for older individuals living with dementia and their caregivers. Having been a caregiver herself, and as a community social worker at the Coalition of Asian-American IPA in New York, Xiaoyi felt compelled to support those affected by dementia and their caregivers, empowering them to age healthily, happily, and independently within our community. Originally hailing from Shandong, China (the hometown of Confucius), Xiaoyi was deeply influenced by the “human-centered virtues for leading a peaceful life” inherent in Confucianism. Throughout her social work experience, she developed a keen interest in enhancing the health and well-being of the aging population, particularly among marginalized racial and ethnic groups with lower socioeconomic statuses. Xiaoyi’s research endeavors revolve around promoting the physical, mental, and cognitive well-being of older individuals, with a special focus on Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias.
Xiaoyi served as a clinical research coordinator at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai for over three years. Collaborating with a multidisciplinary team at the ADRC, she actively participated in conducting dementia evaluations and clinical interviews with over 200 elderly Chinese Americans and their family members. She applied her cultural and linguistic expertise to the development of appropriate assessment tools and recruitment materials tailored to older Chinese Americans – a historically overlooked minority group in Alzheimer’s research. She also provided training and quality control for English Chinese bilingual interdisciplinary teams including neurologists, psychometricians, and research coordinators who were conducting dementia evaluations on Chinese older adults.
MCSI Sponsored Research
