Xiaochuan (Sharon) Wang joined the UCF School of Social Work in August 2018 as an assistant professor. Wang received her Master of Social Work with concentrations on gerontology and social & economic development from Washington University in St. Louis, and her Ph.D. in Social Work from University of Georgia.

Her research interests and expertise center on understanding health and mental healthcare disparities from an intersectionality perspective. Particularly, her research looks at access to, utilization of, and quality of health and mental health services among vulnerable populations, such as racial and ethnic minorities and older adults. Her pilot research funded by UCF Center for Behavioral Health Research and Training explores the lived experience of mental illness, and the opportunities and barriers that exist to service use, among Asian older adults in the Central Florida region. Informed by the pilot study, Wang is working on expanding her research to understand the correlates of formal and informal help-seeking behaviors among racial and ethnic minority older adults, and to assess the healthcare and eldercare workforce capacity in providing quality and culturally sensitive care to this population.

Wang has teaching experience at both BSW and MSW levels in different social work curriculum sequences. She has taught Social Welfare Policies and Issues at BSW level, and Human Behavior in the Social Environment (HBSE) and Behavioral Health Policy and Social Work Practice at MSW level.