About

Dr. Cheng was born and raised in Taiwan and came to the US for graduate degree. He is licensed as a psychologist in CA since 1996. Dr. Cheng worked in a large private, non-profit organization for over 20 years. He worked as a crisis counselor, team coordinator, project coordinator, program director, and corporate director.

He specialized in prevention and work directly with Asian youths and families for 12 years implementing 10 SAMHSA demonstration projects in the area of substance abuse and HIV prevention, violence prevention, and gang affiliation prevention. He directed several youth development, mentoring, leadership development, and parenting projects. Many of them were quite successful and were recognized as promising programs with community defined evidence by Los Angeles County.

With the MHSA efforts in CA, Dr. Cheng was promoted as a Corporate Director in Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) to provide leadership and guidance in training strategies to ensure the quality services in the 1,200-staff agency he served. The efforts included planning and coordinate trainings for professional to get certified in several evidence based practices. He also led the effort in ensure the quality service as well as the fidelity of implementing these practices.

Dr. Cheng was also trained by Dr. Christopher Amenson and Ms. Yvette Townsend as a consultant to provide coaching to programs. He co-facilitated the coaching with Ms. Townsend for two programs to promote their growth for several months each.

Dr. Cheng has been a leader and advocate involved in local, state, and federal level in the areas of public policy, diversity, cultural competence, PEI services, and spirituality. He led a statewide effort in organizing the API communities in CA to look at the mental health disparities and strategies to address these disparities. He produced an API population report over 100 pages and appendices with over 50 promising programs and strategies. This California Reducing Disparities Project (CRDP) is the largest investment in diverse communities and Dr. Cheng was fortunate in leading the API efforts for over five years.

After almost two years of training and consultation for mental health peers workforce development, Dr. Cheng was trained and certified as a Wellness and Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) facilitator in 2017.

Dr. Cheng also served as a public speaker conducting keynote and plenary speech as well as leading numerous workshops in local, state, and national conferences.

Dr. Cheng is a Buddhist in practice and currently a follower of Tibetan Buddhism. He serves as an interpreter for over 15 years for Buddhist teaching. He has directed a Buddhist center since 2009 and helped raised over 3,000,000 for their new center. Dr. Cheng serves on the executive board of Los Angles Faith-Based Advocacy Council and the co-leader for the California Mental Health and Spirituality Initiative.