George Stuart Leibowitz

Rutgers University, School of Social Work

Dr. George Stuart Leibowitz, PhD, LICSW is the Dean and Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University School of Social Work. He is an educator, administrator, interdisciplinary scholar, implementation scientist, and social worker committed to advancing individual well-being and the common good utilizing community-driven informatics approaches. He has decades of experience providing treatment with adolescents with trauma and mental health issues in the justice system. His research includes addressing opioid overdose and health disparities, and social determinants of health utilizing cutting-edge solutions such as AI to improve community health outcomes. His work has been disseminated in top tier journals such as JAMA, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Journal of Child Sex Abuse, and Child and Adolescent Social Work.

Topic: Innovative Community-Engaged Research to Enhance Adolescent and Young Adult Wellbeing

Key themes:

1. Review the current mental health and health challenges among adolescents and young adults and the eight dimensions of wellness. 

2. Learn about research integrating big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and interpretable deep learning approaches for risk prediction into social work practice. 

3. Consider strategies for enhancing wellbeing by utilizing evidence-based wellness models, including universal screening and forming community-based partnerships focused on prevention and equity. 

Raquel Maria Navais de Carvalho Matos

Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Research Centre for Huma Development

Raquel Matos is an Associate Professor, member of the Research Centre for Human Development and Dean of the Faculty of Education and Psychology at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa. She completed her PhD in Psychology in 2007 with a thesis on life trajectories of young women serving prison sentences in Portugal. Since 2008 she added the topic of migrations to her research interests and coordinated a project about the “life trajectories of foreign national women prisoners”. More recently, Raquel Matos has been coordinating in Portugal several European projects on youth delinquency, being particularly interested in exploring young offenders’ life pathways and experiences in the justice system. During her career, Raquel Matos has always valued networking with academics from other scientific areas, with emphasis on sociology, anthropology and law, and with academics and professionals from other countries. She was a visiting researcher at the Universities of Bath, Toronto and Oxford.

Topic: From Conflict to Social Participation: Insights from Research on Young People’s Trajectories

Key themes:

1. Exploring young people’s trajectories of conflict and experiences in the justice system.
2. Identifying relevant factors for breaking the cycle of violence and conflict and promoting positive trajectories in young people.
3. Understanding the role of meaningful relationships in fostering positive trajectories in ‘conflicted young people’.

Chang, Kou-Wei

Department of Life-and-Death Studies (Bachelor of Social Work), NhuHua University in Taiwan

Chang, Kou-Wei received a Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the Department of Social Welfare at National Chung Cheng University. Chang currently serves as an Assistant Professor at Nanhua University. Chang’s research areas include Aging and Social Policy, Poverty and Social Assistance, and Social Care Policy. Chang has also published in various academic journals and participated in numerous seminars.

Topic: Youth development and mental health issues in Taiwan

Key themes:

1. Exploring the current situation of Internet use addiction among adolescents in Taiwan
2. Exploring the current situation of campus bullying among Taiwanese teenagers.
3. Current strategies to prevent school bullying and Internet addiction

Christopher Kam, LCSW-R

Founder/Psychotherapist of Multigenerational LCSW Services, PLLC

Christopher Kam is a New York-based clinical social worker. In his 30-year professional experience, he has served thousands of individuals and families across early childhood centers, family counseling services, hospitals, and hospices. Christopher gained academic recognition in 2017 for his parenting curriculum, Operation Parenting, reviewed by faculty from Columbia University and Fordham University. His latest curriculum, Action Parenting, focuses on children with special education needs. Born in Hong Kong, Christopher holds an undergraduate degree in philosophy and psychology from The City University of New York and a master’s from Columbia University School of Social Work.

Topic: Multigenerational Parenting Group Model – Action Parenting

Key themes:

1. The objective of the Action Parenting workshop is to introduce participants to the Multigenerational Parenting Group Model (MultiGen), which utilizes activity-based mental health art and craft curriculums, and to explore how these can be effectively applied when working with parents of children with special education needs (SEN).
2. This workshop will demonstrate to participants how group leaders serve as key facilitators in guiding families through difficult conversations, ensuring that each family member has a voice, and steering the group members toward practical and constructive solutions.

Xu Zhengye

The Education University of Hong Kong

Dr Xu Zhengye earned her PhD from The Education University of Hong Kong and was awarded the prestigious RGC Postdoctoral Fellowship. Her research focuses on applying principles of embodied cognition to understand and address learning difficulties. Embodied cognition is a framework that emphasizes the intricate relationship between the mind, body, and environment in cognitive processing. Her research findings have been published in leading journals, including the Journal of Educational Psychology. In addition, she has successfully developed game-based applications that effectively assess and train children with learning difficulties. She also serves as a reviewer for various international peer-reviewed journals, such as Annals of Dyslexia, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Language Learning, and Reading and Writing.

Topic: Temporal processing and reading in Chinese children with dyslexia

Key themes:

1. The impact of temporal processing on reading
2. Effects of visual and auditory temporal processing training on reading and reading-related abilities in Chinese children with dyslexia

Mengqi Li 李夢琦

Institution/University: Kiang Wu Nursing College of Macau

Dr. Mengqi Li is an assistant professor at Kiang Wu Nursing College of Macau. Previously, she served as a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University for two years. She obtained her PhD degree from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou. Dr. Li is also a nurse with over ten years of clinical and research experience in psychosocial healthcare. Her research interests include youth mental health, psychosocial support for people with physical disabilities, and the nursing workforce. Dr. Li is also interested in integrating digital technologies and traditional Chinese medicine into nursing interventions for psychosocial health promotion.

Topic: Mindfulness Meets Technology: Relieving Depressive Symptoms in University Students with Chatbot

Key themes:

1. Prevalence of depressive symptoms in university students in Hong Kong
2. Effect of a chatbot-delivered mindfulness-based stress reduction program on relieving depressive symptoms in university students in Hong Kong