She is a professor of history and past department chair at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri, where she founded the Asian studies program.

[1] Her research focuses on Asian American studies, including immigration and ethnicity, assimilation and adaptation, family and marriage, feminism, employment patterns, and community structures.

A Ford Foundation prize-winning author, she has published 35 books and more than 200 articles on Asian American studies, including immigration and ethnicity, assimilation and adaptation, transnationalism, family and marriage, employment patterns, and community structures.

[citation needed] She also serves as: She is the inaugural editor of the Rutgers University Press book series Asian American Studies Today.

[2] She has published 35 books and more than 200 articles on Asian American studies, including immigration and ethnicity, assimilation and adaptation, transnationalism, family and marriage, employment patterns, and community structures.