Redefining Food and Nutrition Value: Exploring a Healthier Future

Queenie is the Founder & CEO of The Project Futurus and Captain Softmeal. She is also the Managing Director at Forward Living and Culture Homes. Queenie is an appointed member of The Elderly Commission at the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to provide advice in the formulation of a comprehensive policy in caring for elders. Queenie is also a Board Member at AIDs Concern.

Queenie had worked as a global brand strategist for almost a decade specializing on brand strategy, design and customer experience for Fortune 500s prior to joining the eldercare field. Combining her insights and experiences in both branding and elderly services, Queenie established The Project Futurus in 2019 to transform the way people perceive aging through advocacy, education, community service, and impact program design. Queenie established “Captain Softmeal” (軟餐俠) to raise awareness on dysphagia health and recently expanded the platform to Singapore. In addition, she created an immersive experiential dim sum program “Sensory Restaurant on Wheels” (流動五感大茶樓) serviced over 2400 elders living with dementia to deliver the joy of dim sum dining. Queenie also responsible for the rebranding of “Culture Homes” and Nordic-inspired senior community “Forward Living”, and an aging-in-place concept experience store “The Living Gallery”.

Queenie was named “Harper’s Bazaar Visionary Women Award 2023”, “Prestige Women of Power 2023”, “Tatler Gen.T 2022 Leaders of Tomorrow” and “Jessica Most Successful Women 2021” . She is also a TEDx and KODW speaker, an Enterprise Advisor at CLAP@JC, and a MingPao columnist.

Queenie holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, specializing in Marketing and Information Systems from the University of Washington (USA). She is also pursuing a Masters Degree in Dementia at the University of Stirling (UK) (2022-2025). She is also a certified Healthcare Worker and Personal Care Worker, and an Eden Alternative Associate advocating for human-centric care.

My sustainability goals for 2024:

I am committed to channelling my passion serving our elders and their well-being. By combining my experience and passion in social innovation, elderly service, and brand strategy & design, I hope to be able to create a new narrative for aging and inspire positive transformation.

Aging is one of UN’s global mega trends, I hope to be able to introduce innovative aged care practices by connecting global practices and knowledge exchange. My sustainability goals for 2024-2025 are to continue to champion for elders’ well-being through meaningful engagements, provide dignified dining solutions for those with swallowing difficulties, raise awareness on positive ageing and promote social inclusion, and to support WHO’s UN Decade of Healthy Ageing.

Dr. Karen CHEUNG Siu-Lan is Adjunct Professor in Asia-Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies at Lingnan University, Adjunct Associate Professor of Practice in WHO Collaborating Centre for Community Health Services, School of Nursing at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the Fellow in Sau Po Centre on Ageing at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), the Director of Mindlink Research Centre, the Member of Service Development and Management Committee in The Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs Association of Hong Kong, the Honorary Director of the 2024-2025 Lantau Island District the Senior Police Call Scheme (SPC) and the Executive Committee Member of the 2024-2026 South China Athletic Association.

After completing her PhD at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in 2003, she awarded with the European Commission’s fellowship to conduct post-doctoral research in Europe. She was the recipient of Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fellowships in 1999/2000 & 2000/2001. She was awarded “Best Teaching Assistant Coordinator” at HKUST in 2002. She was also the scholarship recipient of the Croucher Foundation, RAND/NIA, Wellcome Trust Fund & IUSSP. Returning from Europe, she joined the Department of Social Work and Social Administration at HKU in 2009 and took up the position of Honorary Assistant Professor in 2012-2017. During her time in HKU, she has led the team to conduct “Hong Kong Centenarian Study” and “Reaching out Dementia Caregiver Support Project (REACH-HK).” Both studies are for the first time in Hong Kong. From 2018 to 2020, her team also developed and piloted the smart version of the “REACH-HK” (REACH-HK II). She has been involving with international networks of Réseau Espérance de Vie en Santé (REVES) and International Centenarian Consortium (ICC), and International Centenarian Consortium-Dementia (ICCD) and collaborating with Centre for Genomic Sciences at HKU to examine variants at healthy longevity candidate genes, as well as developing a global comprehensive model and indicators to assess successful ageing and frailty with a multi-dimensional and inter-disciplinary approach.

In 2021, she launched a new book “Healthy Longevity: Evidenced-based Study of Hong Kong” and partnered with Yan Chai Hospital (Social Services Department) (YCHSS) to carry out a pilot study of “Holistic Healthy Life Education” non-pharmaceutical intervention for middle-aged elders with psychosomatic and cardio-metabolic symptoms. From 2021 to 2022, she and her team completed “Hong Kong Centenarian Study II” which was funded by the University Research Grants Council. In 2023, she cooperated with the Hong Kong Chinese Women’s Club Madam Wong Chan Sook Ying Memorial Care & Attention Home For The Aged to conduct a pilot project of “the Digital Version of Memory Treasure Hunt” (eMemory Kits). It aims to improve cognitive function and quality of life of older adults with mild cognitive impairment and/or dementia. eMemory Kits include two electronic devices for memory and cognitive training: (1) tablet (APP) and (2) set-top box and software (VR).

In 2024, she cooperated with YCHSS again to officially launch “The Digital Version of Holistic Healthy Life Education” (e2HLE) intervention for community-dwelling older adults aged 50 years or above with psychosomatic symptoms, and hypertension, hyperglycemia, and hypercholesterolemia. The program is a holistic health-based, person-centric and multi-component intervention, combined with the World Health Organization Integrated Care for the Elderly (ICOPE) model, and provides older adults with a self-monitoring bio-signal system “Hera Leto”, through gerontech and diverse lifestyle modification measures. The content includes a 3-month intervention, including self-care, fitness training, self-acupressure, stress and emotion management, a whole-food plant based diet, and meditation and mindfulness training. The goal is to achieve weight loss, enhance intrinsic capacities (i.e., mental and psychological wellbeing, vitality, and nutritional health), and improve cardiometabolic characteristics (e.g., blood pressure and lipid profile) among older adults.

Since 2001, she has delivered more than 140 research outputs, including books, consulting or contract research reports, working and conference papers, and peer-reviewed journal articles. She has published prolifically in top-specialty or top-generalist journals such as Demography, Population Studies, Demographic Research, European Journal of Ageing, Asian Population Studies, Genus, International Journal of Geriatrics and Psychiatric, Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, Achieve of Geriatric and Gerontology, Aging and Mental Health, BMC Geriatrics, BMC Neurology, Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, Healthcare, Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, Innovation in Aging, International Journal of Aging & Human Development, among others. Her research has been widely cited and generously funded by the RCG and various private foundations.