Dr. Lei Chen is a postdoctoral scholar at the UCSF Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies. She is a trans-disciplinary and cross-cultural researcher whose research focuses on Long-term services and supports, immigrants' access to healthcare, migrant workforce, aging and health policy, aging and technology, and cross-cultural study.

She applies both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to her research. Before joining UCSF, she worked on several research projects at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and collaborated with UCLA Human-Centered Computing and Intelligent Sensing Lab. Apart from being an academic, Lei actively engages in policy-related work (e.g., assisting in developing and implementing the Master Plan for Aging in California).

Lei is working closely with Dr. Joanne Spetz, Dr. Susan Chapman, Dr. Laura Wagner, Dr. Kezia Scales, and Dr. Bianca Frogner in the Advancing Workforce Analysis and Research for Dementia (AWARD). She is developing a data compendium, a research-ready harmonized dataset of policies and programs that affect the demand, supply, working conditions, and skills of direct care workers.