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Dr Erica Woo Jhia Mae

Dr Erica is a registered counsellor with Lembaga Kaunselor Malaysia with a Master's in Professional Counselling and a PhD from Monash University. She has more than 5 years of experience as a counsellor in NGOs and private sectors working with a wide range of clients including refugees, adolescents, university students, and corporate clients. She adopts an eclectic approach to her practice using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as her main approach and incorporating creative interventions. Erica is currently active in expanding her work and research in youth mental health and psychological interventions using contextual behavioural science approaches.

Associate Professor Dr Ooi Pei Boon

Dr Ooi Pei Boon obtained her PhD in Guidance and Counselling from Universiti Putra Malaysia. Believing passion and integrity to be the keys of success, she focuses on healthcare development, research and leadership programmes locally, regionally and globally. She is trained in using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) in her private practice as a counsellor. Dr Ooi is registered and practiticing counsellor with the Board of Counsellors, Malaysia, have equipped her with the essential skills and tools to make this strategic move into holistic healing a reality.

Dr Ooi is often sought to be a speaker for various talks and workshops in the community, having conducted talks and seminars for both schools and companies such as Robert Bosch (M) Penang, Petronas Caligali, Malaysia Board of Counsellor TV, schools and higher education institutions. She is also actively involved in the organising committee of conferences. Her passion has always been about making a difference in an individual’s life. Her previous position as Senior Director of a higher learning institution provided her with an excellent opportunity to assist in impacting on the individual who comes through to her office. She has also served as Chief Operating Officer for the branch campus of this institution, providing strategic directions to a team of 70 staff members to enrich and enhance the students’ experience.

She is also the master trainer licensed to train others in cyberbullying intervention programme in which she has obtained various grants to support this initiative in the Malaysia context.  Dr Ooi was appointed the local organising Chairperson for the Cambridge-Oxford-Sunway Biomedical Symposiums series and the Royal College of Physician London-Cambridge-Sunway Medical Seminars. She acts as the secretariat for the Southeast Asia Leadership Programme (since 2016) and the Leadership in Medicine Programme (since 2019).

Dr Ooi is the principal investigator of the Malaysia Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), whose focus is on cyberbullying incidents among visually impaired youths in Malaysia and has recently been awarded industrial grants to develop COVID-19 vaccination intervention programmes in Malaysia, focusing on the underserved community (elderly and B40 groups in Malaysia). She also serves as the academic editor for the PLOS One journal.  

Dr Chee Kwan Foong

As a lecturer and licensed professional counsellor, Dr Chee Kwan Foong is extremely passionate about academic work and research that contribute to public mental health. Through her formal training in Counselling Psychology and fourteen years of mental health work experience, she has been able to contribute in a meaningful manner to society. As a lecturer for 13 years, she has constantly researched on how environmental factors (e.g., built environment, environment art and design) affect people's health and psychological well-being, as past findings have consistently suggested that well-designed physical settings and environment features foster positive psychological and health outcomes.

Her current research includes three core components – the first investigates the association between the social/physical environmental design of residential care homes for the elderly and the occupants’ psychological well-being. This is particularly important when the elderly in such homes do not have control over their physical environment. The second component focuses on ageing, in particular the needs and well-being of the elderly, and addressing issues like social isolation, loneliness, depressive symptoms, happiness and life satisfaction. The third component focuses on health and stigma. The lives of people with disease, disability and mental disorders/illness are worsened by stigma, subsequently leading to public/social prejudice, loss of self-worth and negative impacts towards the health and psychological well-being of the individual. This area investigates how stigma impacts the wellbeing of people with disease, disability and mental illness. Though primarily a quantitative researcher, Kwan Foong is also interested in work engaged with some aspect of mixed methodologies and working across disciplines.

Dr Michele Anne

Dr Michele Anne is a registered clinical psychologist with the Malaysian Allied Health Professions Council under Ministry of Health Malaysia. She has experience working as a lecturer in UK and Malaysia, and as a clinical psychologist in Malaysia. Her interest revolves around the links between clinical psychology and cognitive psychology. Dr Michele’s research focuses on differences in autobiographical memories for people with various mental health issues in clinical and sub-clinical populations. She also studies the underlying cognitive mechanisms, the impacts, and the ways to reduce those autobiographical memory differences.