Yueh-Chiao Yeh

Professor Yueh-Chiao (Stella) Yeh is Vice President of Nanhua University, Taiwan, and a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Natural Biotechnology and Master’s Program in Natural Healing Sciences. She also serves as Chief Executive Officer of the university’s Higher Education Sprout Project and University Social Responsibility (USR) initiatives, Chief Consultant to the Cittaslow Taiwan Alliance, and Executive Secretary and General Coordinator of the Slow Food Community–Yunlin Earth Market.

Her interdisciplinary research interests encompass cardiovascular and endothelial dysfunction, oxidative stress, pharmacology and toxicology, allergy and asthma, complementary and integrative health, emotional well-being, healthy aging, and community health promotion. Her peer-reviewed work has appeared in international journals including the British Journal of Pharmacology, Cardiovascular Research, Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, and Complementary Therapies in Medicine.

For more than a decade, Professor Yeh has translated the Slow Food principles of “Good, Clean, and Fair” into sustained university social responsibility and place-based sustainable development. Her work regards food not merely as a commodity, but as an important pathway connecting public health, environmental stewardship, cultural preservation, local economic resilience, and community well-being. Through multi-year USR projects supported by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education, she has built cross-sector partnerships among universities, local governments, small-scale farmers, social enterprises, food artisans, educators, students, and community residents. These collaborations have promoted producer capacity-building, food and agricultural education, local product development, community storytelling, responsible consumption, and intergenerational learning.

One of her representative achievements is helping establish the Slow Food Community–Yunlin Earth Market as a living platform for farmers’ markets, educational workshops, producer–consumer dialogue, cultural exchange, and community empowerment. She has also advanced Cittaslow initiatives in Dalin, Zhutian, Chishang, Dongyin, and Majia, applying Cittaslow values to local governance, cultural heritage, ecological conservation, sustainable tourism, community health, and quality of life. Internationally, she represented Taiwan at the 2023 Cittaslow International Assembly in Parma and the Yunlin Slow Food Community at Terra Madre 2024 in Turin, where she shared Taiwan’s community-based practices and strengthened international partnerships. Her books, Slow Food and Slow Life Kitchen (2022) and Cittaslow Taiwan Guide (2025), further translate her field experience into accessible resources for education and public engagement. Through this local-to-global approach, Professor Yeh demonstrates how USR can create lasting social value and evolve into ESG-oriented action grounded in shared governance, environmental responsibility, community inclusion, and global co-creation. She has received multiple awards recognizing her contributions to teaching, research, student mentoring, and community service.