Dr. Li graduated from the University of Mississippi with a Ph.D. in Economics. She received the Next Generation Leaders Award from the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), and is a finalist for the Government Affiliate position for the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP) in 2019. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Mississippi Council on Economic Education, and the committee of NCES Education Technology Equity Initiative Expert Panel for the National Center for Education Statistics. In addition to publications in several peer-reviewed journals and publications at national conferences, she is the Principal Investigator for the 2015-2019 Statewide Longitudinal Data System Grant and the pending Principal Investigator for the 2019-2023 Education Research Grant, both funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) at the U.S. Department of Education.