In addition to teaching and research, I am actively involved in the broader academic community at Duke Kunshan University (DKU) and beyond. By doing so, I strive to deepen our understanding of China and public policy, increase diversity in academia, while building bridges between academic disciplines, countries, and cultures.

Since January 2025, I am Co-Director of the DKU Center for the Study of Contemporary China (CSCC), which is a real honor as I have the privilege of working with ambitious and talented students, as well as colleagues with deep expertise on a wide range of topics related to China. In my co-director role, I am in charge of budgeting, programming, strategic development, reporting, grant and award committees, the hosting of visiting scholars, event chairing, faculty and student engagement, developing external collaborations, and other administrative and academic responsibilities, such as participation in the Faculty Assembly Research Committee. I previously co-led the CSCC’s Governing China research cluster (2023-2024) and was a member of the Center’s Executive Committee (2021–2023). In that capacity, I organized seminars with external speakers, reviewed grant applications, and contributed to developing the center’s long-term strategies.

Also at DKU, I served as the inaugural chair of the Ad-Hoc Equity and Diversity Committee from December 2022 until January 2024. In this period, the committee carried out DKU’s first equity and diversity survey, culminating in the university’s first equity and diversity report with recommendations for institutional improvement. This experience underscored for me how essential it is to create spaces where colleagues feel safe to share, while also reminding me that my own perspective and lived experience may differ greatly from those of others—an insight that continues to shape my approach to teaching and research. Before chairing this committee, I gained experience in faculty governance in my role as Secretary of the Faculty Council (July 2019–January 2021).

In terms of curriculum development, from 2019-2024, I was the coordinator of the undergraduate environmental science/public policy major at DKU. As founding faculty member of the public policy curriculum, I was actively involved in faculty hiring, curriculum development, and student advising. During 2022–2023, I also led DKU Public Policy Teaching Cohort, which contributed to a shared institutional vision for public policy, a more integrated curriculum, and increased visibility of the public policy tracks by organizing relevant events such as information sessions for students.

Outside DKU, I regularly organize and chair conference panels and workshops on policy processes, particularly focused on China and other authoritarian settings. In 2022, I co-chaired ECPR Joint Sessions (online) and IWPP (Budapest) workshops on Policy Process Theories in Authoritarian Settings. Based on these multiple-day workshops, together with Dr. Caroline Schlaufer (University of Bern), I co-edited a special issue on Policy Process Theories in Authoritarian Settings, published in 2024 by Review of Policy Research, which is available here.

Within the American Political Sciences Association (APSA), I am a board member of the Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics (STEP) Section. I was STEP conference chair in 2024–2025, which involved processing >200 abstracts and organizing >40 panels. I have also served on several APSA award committees. In 2025–2026, I chair the STEP Evan Ringquist Best Paper Award Committee, after being a member of this committee in 2024–2025. In 2022–2023, I was a member of the Lynton Keith Caldwell Book Award Committee in the STEP Section and a member of the Best Comparative Policy Paper Award Committee in the Public Policy Section. In 2021–2022, I was a member of the Paul A. Sabatier Best Conference Paper Award Committee in the STEP Section.

I’m an editorial board member of the journals Policy & Politics, Research of Policy Review, and China Policy Journal. I also serve as advisory board member for the Oxford University Press Book Series “Lessons from Policy Processes on the World’s Grand Challenges,” which is edited by Paul Cairney, Tanya Heikkila, Evangelia Petridou, and Chris Weible.

I’m a peer reviewer for the following journals: Administration & Society, Asian Journal of Political Science, BMC Health Services Research, Environmental Science and Policy, Frontiers in Veterinary Science, Government Information Quarterly, International Review of Public Policy, Journal of Chinese Political Science, Journal of Contigencies and Crisis Management, Natural Hazards Review, Policy & Politics, Policy Sciences, Policy Studies, Policy Studies Journal, Policy Theory & Practice, Politische Vierteljahresschrift, Public Administration Review, Regulation & Governance, Review of Policy Research.