Her research interests and experience are centered on health equity with respect to health systems development, focusing on health system governance, health financing, as well as the organization and delivery of health services. She specializes in maternal and child health, tuberculosis control, and non-communicable disease management in less developed areas, with a focus on vulnerable populations in China, as well as other Asian and African countries. She teaches health system in low and middle income countries, qualitative research methods, implementation science and introduction to maternal and child health.

Over the past 15 years, she has led and participated in approximately 30 national and international collaborative research projects and has published over 70 journal articles, primarily in top-tier journals within her field of research.

She received medical and international health training in China and the Netherlands, earned her doctoral degree from the University of Helsinki in Finland, and completed postdoctoral training at the Duke Global Health Institute at Duke University and Duke Kunshan University. Before joining Duke Kunshan University, she worked for over two years in the Department of Reproductive Health and Research at the World Health Organization in Geneva.