Jie Yang

Dr. Jie Yang is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work within East Carolina University's College of Health and Human Performance. Her office is located in Rivers Building 215. She holds memberships in the Society for Social Work and Research (since 2018) and The Gerontological Society of America (since 2018).

Dr. Yang earned her M.S.W. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her Ph.D. in Social Work from Boston College.

Her research program centers on aging populations and health disparities, with specific focus areas including:

• Mental health service utilization among sexual minorities
• Substance use patterns in older adults
• Immigrant health access barriers
• Social capital and community trust impacts
• Volunteering as protective factor against unemployment effects

Recent publications (2019-2023) demonstrate strong thematic focus on gerontological health equity, with 75% examining aging populations and 62% analyzing health disparities. Her work frequently intersects social work practice with public health interventions.

Dr. Yang maintains an active research portfolio with current projects including:

• Principal Investigator: ECU Site - Bingocize NC (2024-2026, funded by Western Carolina University)
• Co-Investigator: NIH-funded study on socioeconomic impacts of La Crosse encephalitis (2024-2027)
• Previously secured ECU Health Behavior Research Cluster funding (2020-2021)

She contributes to academic peer review for multiple gerontology and public health journals including Journal of Gerontological Social Work and American Journal of Preventive Medicine.