Lei Cheng

Dr. Cheng earned her bachelor’s degree from the School of Nursing at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and her master’s and doctoral degrees from the School of Nursing at Fudan University. Her doctoral dissertation focused on evidence implementation frameworks in nursing practice in China. From 2016 to 2017, she was a joint PhD student at Duke University, where she participated in research on implementation science and supportive care for pediatric cancer. From 2019 to 2020, she was a visiting scholar at the Department of Nursing Science, Professional Practice & Quality at the National Children’s Hospital, where she contributed to research on pediatric patient-reported outcomes and palliative care.Her current research focuses on improving the quality of care and overall well-being of children with serious illnesses and their families across the disease trajectory. Her work has been supported by competitive grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the China Association for Science and Technology, the Shanghai Pujiang Program, and the China Medical Board. As a 2025 Fellow of the China Medical Board Global Health Leadership Development Program, she will undertake a one-year fellowship at Yale School of Medicine, including a nine-month field placement in Ghana. Under the mentorship of Drs. LaRon E. Nelson and Shelli L. Feder from Yale, and in collaboration with Dr. Eva Mensah, Director of Nursing Services, Ghana Health Service, and Mrs. Theresa Abena Jamebe Antwi, Principal, Public Health Nurses’School, her project focuses on “Empowering Community Health Nurses for Pediatric Palliative Care in Ghana”.