Stephanie Hilary Xinyi Ma

Dr Stephanie Hilary Xinyi Ma
Research Fellow, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University

Dr Stephanie Hilary Xinyi Ma is a research psychologist and certified health and wellness coach whose work centres on supporting wellbeing in healthcare and community settings. She completed her PhD in psychology at Nanyang Technological University, focusing on participatory arts engagement and wellbeing.

Her doctoral work examined the impact of arts engagement in the context of healthy ageing, including a systematic review of arts and ageing, the design and evaluation of an art- and culture-based intergenerational intervention, and an exploration of the mechanisms that contribute to effective approaches for wellbeing. Over the past decade, she has co-developed and evaluated numerous participatory art-based programmes (e.g. ARTISAN, A-Health Singapore, Slow Art Plus) in collaboration with artists, art therapists, local museum institutions, social service organisations, and academic institutions. Adopting a participatory approach, her research places emphasis participants’ voices and on co-creating activities with participants rather than for them. 

She is currently a Research Fellow and a health coach at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University. Her current work focuses on health coaching and its integration into digital health interventions for chronic disease management, drawing on insights from arts and health to support person-centred, and sustainable approaches to care.