Theresa Duong, PhD

Dr. Huong (Theresa) Duong is a research and pedagogy consultant at Lucimos. She is also currently the Pedagogical Wellness Specialist at the Division of Teaching Excellence (DTEI) at the University of California, Irvine. As the first of its kind within the UC system, her role is to provide university instructors with evidence-based training on pedagogical methods that fosters well-being for both instructors and students. Her current programs focus on introducing instructors to a variety of pedagogical methods such as trauma-informed pedagogy, contemplative pedagogy, healthy pedagogy, the PERMA theory of well-being all under a lens that promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. Furthermore, she is leading efforts to build up a research agenda around creating and evaluating pedagogical wellness programs. In addition to her position at DTEI, she also works as a part-time instructor for public health online courses at Orange Coast College. 

Dr. Duong has worked on a variety of projects in the past, focused on increasing health equity for the Vietnamese American community. Her previous projects utilized mixed methods to explore peer-to-peer communication around the HPV vaccine among Vietnamese American young adults. She also led the efforts on the Chao Family Comprehensive Center Anti-Cancer Challenge grant to create, implement and evaluate a family-based social media intervention called “Let’s Chat” that focused on family communication about cancer prevention. She has also been involved in conducting narrative-based research in the past and currently in her new role.

Dr. Duong received her doctorate degree in Public Health with an emphasis on Disease Prevention in 2022 and a Bachelor of Arts in Public Health Policy with a minor in Educational Studies from UC Irvine in 2015. She is trained in mixed methods research and received advanced training in pedagogical methods as a Pedagogical Fellow and Educational Development Fellow through DTEI. Prior to graduate school, she served as the STD Data Management Specialist and Public Health Emergency Management Intern at the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services. She is an active member of the American Public Health Association and the Professional and Organizational Development Network.