Board Advisory Panel

Member, Board Advisory Panel

Ms Chia Yong Yong is an advocate and solicitor with her own law practice, Chia Yong Yong Law Corporation, through which she hopes to achieve community legal outreach for greater social impact, particularly to the less advantaged.

Ms Chia is a long-time volunteer in the social service sector and an avid advocate for persons with disabilities. She was a member of SPD’s Board of Management from 2004 and served as its President between 2008 and 2020. After stepping down from the Board in September 2020, Ms Chia was appointed member of SPD’s Board Advisory Panel where she continues to guide and support the work of SPD, a social service agency serving persons with disabilities in Singapore.

She also sits on the Board of SG Enable, and co-chairs the 3rd Enabling Master Plan Implementation Workgroup on “Promoting Independent Living through Design and Technology”. She was also a member of the Committee on the Future Economy, the 3rd Enabling Masterplan, the Compulsory Education Advisory Panel and a member of the Tote Board Charity (Social Service) Sub-Committee. In addition, Ms Chia was one of a 10-member Parliamentary Select Committee comprising MPs and ministers formed to recommend how Singapore should tackle the problem of fake news in January 2018.

Ms Chia was appointed Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) on 8 September 2014 and was the first wheelchair-using MP. She was re-appointed in March 2016 and completed her second term as NMP. Through her role as NMP and President of SPD, she had brought issues such as the challenges faced by persons with disabilities and the social service sector, and the need to build greater understanding and acceptance of differences, to the fore.

Ms Chia was the winner of Women’s Weekly “Great Women of Our Times” in 2014, and received the Social Innovative Park Fellow Award in the same year. She was also awarded the Bintang Bakti Masyarakat (Public Service Star) in 2018, Pingat Bakti Masyarakat (Public Service Medal) in 2013, and the President’s Social Service Award (Individual Category) in 2011 for her voluntary contributions made to the social service sector.  She was made a Social Service Fellow in July 2020 in recognition for her past contributions to the social service sector.

Ms Chia has Peroneal Muscular Atrophy, a degenerative muscular condition that affects her four limbs.