She received her Ph.D. degree in 2015 from Department of Computer Science at Georgia State University. She received her B.S. in Computer Science and Technology and M.S. in Information Security from Wuhan University, Wuhan, China, in 2008 and 2010, respectively. In 2012, she received another M.S. Degree in Computer Science from Georgia State University. Her research interests include data management and protocol design in wireless networks, influence maximization and information dissemination in mobile social networks. She is also interested in other topics such as information security and big data management. Dr. Yan is an IEEE member, and an IEEE COMSOC member.