Shirley was born in Guangzhou, China, and grew up in Los Angeles, California. She attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacology. During her undergraduate studies, she worked as a Certified Pharmacy Technician and gained patient care experience in the Emergency Department and the Surgical Nursing Floor at USC Arcadia Hospital.

At the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, Shirley works as the main Clinical Research Coordinator for the NACC UDS 4.0 (ENHANCE) project and also helps run visits for Cantonese, Mandarin, and English-speaking participants for the UCSF Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and the MULTIVERSE study.