Jia Yan's research focus is Chinese linguistics and teachers' professional development. Her teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include integrating poetry into CSL teaching, Chinese for beginners and bilingual learning.

Yan taught Chinese in Korea through the Confucius Institute in 2017. She served in the Duke Study in China program in Beijing and taught business Chinese courses at the University of International Business and Economics from 2018 to 2019. Before joining Duke Kunshan, she taught Chinese at multiple levels and offered extracurricular activities to stimulate students' interests in learning Chinese at Duke University. She received an M.A. in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language from the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE).