Wing Yi Chang

Wing Yi (Winnie) Chan is a behavioral and social scientist at the RAND Corporation. As a community psychologist, she applies a systems approach to examine individual and systemic processes that support resilient individuals and communities. Specifically, she studies the interaction of social identities with various social systems (e.g., cultural, family) to prevent problem behaviors and promote positive developmental trajectories in adolescents and young people who have experienced marginalization (e.g., racial/ethnic minorities, immigrants, refugees). She has expertise in using various quantitative (e.g., structural equation modeling, latent profile analysis) and qualitative (e.g., grounded theory, thematic analysis) techniques to investigate the complexity of youth development. Her most current research examines the relationship between civic engagement and positive youth development in adolescents and young adults of color.

She also conducts research to evaluate the effectiveness of school- and community-based prevention programs designed to promote resilience among children and youth who are exposed to high levels of environmental risk (e.g., single-parent household, neighborhood with high poverty, migration trauma).

Chan received her Ph.D. in community and prevention science from the Univeristy of Illinois at Chicago.