Dr. Yoong Soo May received her Bachelor degree in Remedial Education; both Masters and Ph.D. in Special Education. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Educational Psychology and Counselling, Faculty of Education, Universiti Malaya, where she began her appointment on 26 September 2025. Prior to joining Universiti Malaya, she served as an Assistant Director at the Special Education Division, Ministry of Education Malaysia from 27 December 2022 to 25 September 2025.

Dr. Yoong’s research interests include special education, learning disabilities, specific learning disorders, and inclusive education. She has obtained 3 copyrights for her innovative works: Dyscalculia Module, Metic Board, and Dyscalculia Checklist.

In addition, she had received 9 international awards and 7 national awards. Among them are: Platinum Award in 2nd Innovation for Disability-Inclusive Education Competition (iDIEC2025), Excellent Paper Award in International Conference on Arts, Education and Social Science (ICAES 2023) in Paris, Top 20 Finalist in Special Education Innovation Award (SEIA) 2022, and Best Paper Award in International Conference on Education, Ethics, Legal, Social Science and Technology (ICEELST2020).

Dr. Yoong has actively participated in innovation competitions, where she has received 4 Gold, 4 Silver, and 1 Bronze medals. Dr. Yoong was also actively participated in 3 Minute Thesis Competition, where she was also the Third Place Winner at the National Level Virtual Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition organised by Universiti Malaya in 2022.

She has published 30 articles, (4 Scopus, 13 ERA, 13 refereed journal), 2 articles in conference proceeding, 8 books, 2 chapters in book, and 1 living reference work entry in Encyclopedia of Educational Innovation (SpringerNature Link). She had conducted many presentations either as invited speaker, workshop presenter, conference presenter at international and national conferences.

Dr. Yoong also contributes to academic leadership as an External Examiner for the Diploma in Early Childhood Special Education Programme at Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology (TAR UMT), from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2027.

Her community engagement includes delivering workshops, conducting train-the-trainer programmes for special educators and parents, serving as a jury member in innovation competitions, and reviewing for several reputable academic journals.

Currently, she supervises Ph.D. students (Thesis), Master’s students (Project) and Bachelor Degree students.