In addition, he currently serves as a member of Editorial Board for the Journal of Public Health Management & Practice and as a Board Member for Missouri Institute for Community Health. From 2015 to 2020, Dr. Chen served as a member of the AcademyHealth’s  Education Council. Prior to his current position at the University of Missouri, Dr. Chen served as a Professor and the Chair of Department of Health Services Research and Administration, College of Public Health, at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). During his tenure at UNMC, Dr. Chen also served as the Director of the UNMC Center for Health Policy Analysis and Rural Health Research and was the Deputy Director of the Rural Policy Research Institute’s (RUPRI) Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis (funded by the US Federal Office of Rural Health Policy) from 2004 to 2010. 

Throughout his career, Dr. Chen has directed and conducted many projects in the areas of health services and policy research, rural health research, health economics, and public health services and systems research (PHSSR), publishing policy briefs and peer-reviewed manuscripts to inform policy makers, health administrators, and public health practitioners at both regional and national levels. As the Founding Co-director of the RWJF-funded Nebraska Public Health PBRN, Dr. Chen engaged local health departments across the state of Nebraska in identifying, designing, implementing, disseminating, and translating research relevant to public health practice and policy. Dr. Chen has a PhD in Health Policy and Administration from the Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.