A first generation immigrant, Dr. Li made South Carolina her first home when she arrived in the US at age 7. She now returns to start her faculty position at MUSC after completing both her general surgery residency and vascular surgery fellowship at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. She has trained with experts in managing complex aortic problems to bring advanced technologies to patients otherwise deemed non-operable by standard therapies. Her training institution also specialized in advanced limb preservation techniques in the treatment of peripheral arterial disease that reduced limb loss, skills which she now brings to MUSC. Academically, she is interested in health disparities and in applying knowledge gained from studying large databases and registries to individualize patient care. She also has a strong interest in quality improvement practices to understand why disparities exist and to optimize patient outcomes.

She received her Bachelors in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Biomedical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and went on to do research at the Massachusetts General Hospital before attending Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta to complete her medical degree. During her training at BIDMC, she participated in extensive health services research with mentors at BIDMC and completed a Master's in Public Health in Clinical Effectiveness at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is excited to be in Charleston and to provide up-to-date, quality care to the patients of this community.