Mr Masagos Zulkifli

Minister for Social and Family Development
Second Minister for Health

Mr Masagos Zulkifli is Singapore's Minister for social and Family Development. Mr Masagos entered politics in 2006, after being elected as Member of Parliament for Tampines Group Representation Constituency, and was appointed Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Education. Prior to that, Mr Masagos was working in Singapore Telecommunications Limited and last held the position of CEO, SingTel Global Offices. From 2008 to 2014, Mr Masagos held other positions in the Singapore Government, within the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs. He was appointed Minister-in-Charge of Muslim Affairs in May 2018. From October 2015 to July 2020, Mr Masagos was Minister for the Environment and Water Resources. He took on his current appointment on 27 July 2020.

Ms Rahayu Mahzam

Senior Parliamentary Secretary,
Ministry of Health & Ministry of Law

Rahayu Mahzam is currently the Senior Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Law. She was serving at the Ministry of Communications and Information from May 2021 to 12 June 2022. She has been a Member of Parliament representing the Jurong Group Representation Constituency since September 2015. Prior to her appointment as Parliamentary Secretary in September 2020, Rahayu was a lawyer, specialising in family law.

Rahayu is passionate about supporting residents in need and developing opportunities for people to come together to help one another. She has introduced many social programmes in Bukit Batok East, to help families, support students and uplift women. Her initiatives with volunteers have also led to Bukit Batok East being recognised as a Dementia-Friendly Community in Singapore.

In Parliament, Rahayu has championed the interests of the special needs’ community, youth development, as well as efforts to empower women and preserve a strong, multi-racial and multireligious community.

As Deputy Chairperson of the REACH Supervisory Panel, Rahayu is closely involved in REACH’s efforts to seek feedback from the public on national policies and issues. She also contributes nationally through other committees, including the OnePeople.SG Executive Committee and the National Youth Council. She leads the M3 Youth empowerment and mentoring efforts in the Malay/Muslim community. Rahayu was one of the co-chairs leading the efforts of the Conversations on Women’s Development. The discussions culminated in a White Paper which was presented in Parliament in May 2022. She also co-chairs the Singapore Together Alliance for Action to tackle online harms, especially those targeted at women and girls. Rahayu is also involved in the Child and Maternal Health & Wellbeing as well as the Inter-agency Taskforce on Mental Health and Well-being.

Ms Sun Xueling

Minister of State
Ministry of Social and Family Development & Ministry of Home Affairs

Ms Sun Xueling was elected a Member of Parliament in September 2015. She currently holds the position of Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Social and Family Development. Ms Sun serves as a Board Member of the Chinese Development Assistance Council.

Ms Sun served in the Ministry of Education from 2020 - 2022 and had also served in the Ministries of Home Affairs and National Development from 2018 - 2020.

Before entering politics, Ms Sun spent more than a decade in the private sector in finance and investments. She received her Master of Science in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and also holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences in Economics from the National University of Singapore.

Prof Philip A. Fisher

Professor, Graduate School of Education, Stanford University

Dr. Fisher is a Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Center on the Developing Child and a member of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, both based at Harvard University. His research focuses on developing and evaluating early childhood interventions in communities, and on translating scientific knowledge regarding healthy development under conditions of adversity for use in social policy and programs. He is the developer of a number of widely disseminated evidence-based early childhood intervention and prevention programs targeting mental health and wellbeing of young children. Dr. Fisher is the recipient of the 2012 Society for Prevention Research Translational Science Award, and a 2019 Fellow of the American Psychological Society.

Prof Jerry Chan

Director of SingHealth Duke-NUS Maternal and Child Health Research Institute

Dr Jerry Chan is a Senior Clinician-Scientist Obstetrician and Gynaecologist (OBGYN) with research interests in fetal immunology and molecular therapy, reproductive medicine and life-course epidemiology. His research straddles several fields of cutting-edge science underpinning advances in reproductive biology, from early fetal development and immunology, to fetal therapy and perinatal advancements through optimising fertility and perinatal outcome; and seeks to translate discoveries from the laboratory to clinical applications to improve patient outcomes. He has published over 250 papers including The Lancet, Nature, Nature Medicine, Science and Cell; and is also a Highly Cited Researcher (Clarivate).

Currently the Director of SingHealth Duke-NUS Maternal and Child Health Research Institute and KK Research Centre, he is also the Vice Chair of Research in the Academic Clinical Programme in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and the inaugural chairman of the Singapore OBGYN Research Network (SORN). This allows him to develop multiple research programmes and networks to address the challenges in Maternal and Child Health. A firm believer of the power of collaborative efforts, Prof Chan hope for juniors to be inspired and trained, allowing more discoveries to be enabled.

Prof Chan has received numerous awards including the Benjamin Henry Sheares memorial lecture and the SingHealth Distinguished Researcher Award. He was also elected the 5th President of the International Fetal Transplantation and Immunology Society (iFeTIS) which advocates for the translation of fetal stem cell and gene therapy among multiple international partners.

Prof Bryce D. McLeod

Professor and Co-Director of Clinical Training, Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University

Prof Bryce D. McLeod, PhD is an internationally recognised expert in implementation science who has served on local, national, and international committees focused on evidence-based practice for children and adolescents with social, emotional, and behavioural problems.

Prof McLeod is a Professor of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University and a Clark Hill Institute for Positive Youth Development faculty member. Aside from his involvement with CHILD in Singapore, he is also a Visiting Professor at the Department of Paediatrics, NUS.

The author of over 100 publications and the recipient of numerous national and international grant awards, his research interests include distilling core elements of evidence-based programs to facilitate the implementation and sustainment of evidence-based practices in community settings, youth diagnostic and behavioural assessment, treatment integrity research, and provider training and supervision.

Ms Tan Li San

Chief Executive Officer, National Council of Social Service (NCSS)

Tan Li San is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the National Council of Social Service, which she joined in January 2020.

Prior to this, Li San held the position of Deputy Secretary (Industry and Information) at the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) where she oversaw MCI’s infocomm and media industry development, digital inclusion, and information policy portfolios, as well as its corporate functions. Li San has held various Singapore government positions during her career, including roles in the Ministry of Manpower, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, Ministry of Finance, Public Service Division, and the Civil Service College.

Li San’s experience in the social service sector included serving on the boards of Beyond Social Services, and the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (MINDS). She currently sits on the Boards of SG Enable, Charity Council, National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) and raiSE. She is also a member of the Social Service Sector Strategic Thrusts (4ST) Steering Committee.

Dr Cheryl Seah Kwee Fang, PhD

Director, Centre for Evidence and Implementation

Cheryl Seah, PhD, is a developmental psychologist with more than 20 years of experience in clinical and community settings with a focus in early intervention among young children and their families. Her expertise revolves around the areas of disabilities and inclusive practices, the assessment of learning needs in children, attachment, parenting and the use of implementation science to improve evidence-informed practices.

She has led several projects involving the design of early intervention framework – Echo Framework, evaluated interventions and supported teams in scaling up their implementation to improve outcomes for young children and their families (KidSTART). She also conducts undergraduate and post-graduate courses for early childhood educators in inclusive practices for children with diverse learning needs.

She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS).

Associate Professor Robyn Mildon, PhD

Executive Director, Centre for Evidence and Implementation (CEI), Singapore/Australia/UK

Robyn Mildon, PhD, is an internationally recognised figure in the field of evidence synthesis and translation, implementation science and program and policy evaluations in health and human services with particular expertise in early childhood. She is the Founding Executive Director of the Centre for Evidence and Implementation (CEI), a global social purpose organisation whose work now spans across 8 countries.

Robyn is a Visiting Associate Professor at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Co-Director of the recently established Centre for Behavioural and Implementation Science Interventions (BISI), National University of Singapore, an Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University in Australia, and Chair of the Evidence and Implementation Summit 2021 (www.eisummit.org).

Over her career, Robyn's work has helped to advance the implementation of better evidence in policy and practice settings, improving the quality and effectiveness of health and human services. She has been a keynote speaker at multiple events around the globe and designed and led a number of workshops to train students, policy makers and practitioners in implementation science and evaluation methods. Robyn has authored or co-authored multiple peer-reviewed publications, commissioned evidence reviews and book chapters. She is also a Co-Author of an edited book Implementation Science 3.0 (Springer, 2020).