He received a degree in Public Administration from Beijing Institute of Machinery (2006), his M.P.A. from Kansas State University (2009) and Ph.D. (2013) from University of Kentucky. His research interests focus on public finance and budgeting, public procurement and public private partnership, donors' philanthropy behavior, and nonprofit finance and management. Most recently, he has published research on "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and State Accountability". He teaches courses on public budgeting at the undergraduate and graduate levels as well as core courses in the Master’s of Public Administration program.