Honoring the Life & Legacy of JeeWon Cheong, Ph.D.

May 18, 2026

by Alisha Katz, APR, MAMC

The University of Florida College of Health & Human Performance mourns the loss of JeeWon Cheong, Ph.D., a renowned quantitative social psychologist and beloved faculty member, mentor and friend in the UF Department of Health Education & Behavior.

Cheong dedicated her career to advancing research that would improve lives and illuminating the barriers faced by underserved and vulnerable populations, including emerging adults, young children and adults with physical disabilities, among others.

Prior to joining UF, she held academic appointments at the State University of New York (SUNY) – Albany, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, or UAB. While at UAB, she served as the primary methodologist for UAB’s Center for the Study of Community Health, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, Research Center, and as a liaison between two research cores for the university’s Center for AIDS Research. Throughout her career, Cheong served as a lead methodologist on multiple grants funded by the National Institutes of Health and the CDC.

In 2015, Cheong joined the college, bringing exceptional expertise as a methodologist in health behavior research, an area not previously represented in the department and one that proved critical to its growth as a leading research unit. Her work has centered on mediation analysis, the study of why and how one thing causes another, as well as substance use and related risk behaviors among adolescents and adults. An expert in mediation analysis and longitudinal modeling, she made significant contributions to the field through her extensive publications in peer-reviewed journals and her involvement with large-scale prevention studies, examining how social and environmental factors shape the development of adolescent substance use. She was also a consistent contributor to the UF Center for Behavioral Economic Health Research, which emphasizes the promotion of health, well being, illness and injury prevention, and directed the Center’s Methodology Core.

In the most recent years, her research focused on understanding the mechanism of natural recovery from problem drinking among community-dwelling adults, substance use among sexual minority youths and HIV/AIDS risk among young adults in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods. In her last published article – published in April of this year – she examined why some young adults with a family history of alcohol use disorder are more likely to develop unhealthy drinking habits themselves.

“JeeWon was an extraordinary human being whose sense of humor brightened our hearts, whose integrity reflected the highest standards of scholarship, and whose generous friendship helped keep us connected and supported,” said Mildred Schreiner (Maldonado-Molina), Ph.D., the chair for the UF Department of Health Education & Behavior.  

“JeeWon was a quintessential research collaborator and was highly regarded in several national research communities, including addiction research and prevention science. She was also an outstanding educator and provided students with hands-on learning experiences in quantitative methods and behavioral research – it was remarkable to see how her graduate students developed under her mentorship,” said Jalie A. Tucker, Ph.D., M.P.H., a professor emerita in the department and a frequent research collaborator with Cheong. “Above all, she was a wonderful colleague to many, always pleasant, gracious, thoughtful, conscientious and generous to faculty and students alike.”

Cheong will be remembered not only for her scholarly excellence, but also for her generosity as a mentor and her lasting impact on colleagues, students and the broader research community.

She is survived by her sister, brother and parents. A service will be held on Wednesday, May 20, at the Baughman Center, and a Celebration of Life will be hosted at a later date.