She received her BS in Nursing from Peking Union Medical College in China, and earned MS in Health Promotion and PhD in Health Behavior from Indiana University. She completed postdoctoral training in the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at University of California San Francisco. Before joining the faculty at NYU, she was a Research Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health at University of Hong Kong, where she was the PI for several studies that investigated psychosocial determinants of electronic cigarette use and waterpipe smoking among adolescents and adults in Hong Kong and mainland China. Her current research focuses on understanding tobacco-related disparities among Chinese Americans, and using mobile technologies to facilitate smoking cessation among Chinese population.