Laina Ya-Hui Bay-Cheng is a scholar and administrator who joined York in 2022 to establish the university’s office of Faculty Affairs. Her move to York followed 17 years on faculty at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work, including serving as PhD Program Director and Associate Dean for Faculty Development. In January 2024, she was appointed as Vice-President of the Division of Equity, People & Culture and provided strategic leadership across Human Resources, Labour Relations, Faculty Affairs, Indigenous Initiatives, the Centre for Human Rights, Equity & Inclusion as well as pan-university equity-focused initiatives. In January 2026, Laina began a two-year term as Interim Provost & Vice-President Academic. She maintains a faculty appointment as Professor of Psychology in the Faculty of Health.
Alongside her academic leadership, Laina has earned awards for her dedication to teaching and mentorship and established a profile as a leading scholar in the study of young women’s sexualities. She has played a central role in advancing a contextualized understanding of young women’s sexual experiences, rights, and agency. Tapping her interdisciplinarity and methodological breadth, she uses diverse analytic approaches to examine the impact of interlocked misogyny, racism, economic injustice, and age-based oppression on young women’s sexual lives. Several of her works are cited frequently and as foundational in reframing young women’s sexual vulnerability as a product of social, material, and ideological conditions rather than individual deficits.
Whether as a researcher, educator, or administrator, Laina’s approach is built on a feminist and social work foundation: that an equitable, just, and sound social system should be designed – and altered as needed – to enable its constituents’ individual and collective thriving. This requires critical and strategic attention to the conditions in which people make their lives (including as students, staff, and faculty), listening and responding to their priorities, building trust and coalitions, and supporting ground-up initiatives. Laina’s record of academic leadership at York reflects these principles.
- In her first administrative role at York as Associate Vice-President Faculty Affairs, Laina’s efforts included: improving the accessibility, consistency, and efficacy of hiring and recruitment practices; facilitating collegial networks and connections across the university through meet-ups; and creating resources to counter scholarship harassment and promote the academic freedom of all York scholars and students.
- Laina’s priority as Vice-President of the Division of Equity, People & Culture was to strengthen York’s relational culture and build capacity for weathering challenges at all system levels and of varied forms. This entailed investments in pan-university services such as workplace restoration and change management supports, initiatives and programming to facilitate open and respectful dialogue, and building trust and relationships with diverse constituencies.
- As Interim Provost & Vice-President Academic, Laina will continue to dedicate time, thought, and energy to cultivating conditions in which York community members thrive in their own studies and careers while also contributing to others’ by upholding a shared commitment to intellectual experimentation, expression, and exchange. She also looks forward to championing York’s distinct place in the post-secondary landscape as a progressive, striving university dedicated to generating and sharing knowledge in service to a more equitable and just future.
Throughout her life and career, Bay-Cheng has benefitted from the care and guidance of countless others. She remains grateful for her undergraduate education at Wellesley College, her doctoral training with Dr. Abby Stewart at the University of Michigan, and the colleagues and students she worked with for 17 years at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work prior to joining York.