Ivy Hau-Kong Cheng, was born on January 18, 1953 to a family that immigrated from Shanghai to Hong Kong in 1950. Ivy came to the US in 1971 and completed her bachelor and MBA degrees in Math and Statistics at the University of Maryland.  Ivy passed away in 2018, but her husband and sons continue her passion to support organizations like Elevate Tutoring that empower women/girls to succeed in STEM and higher education.

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She worked for the World Bank for 30 years as a Financial Analyst. Through her career she traveled extensively to China, Mongolia, Japan, Russia, and countries in Central and South America, East Europe and Southeast Asia. During these travels, Ivy noticed that some women and girls, especially minorities, in those regions were not receiving the same opportunities in education and career training as others. As a result, she developed a passion for helping those women and girls through established NGO foundations/organizations.