Dr. Liang is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Administration. She received a Ph.D. in Public Administration (with a second major in Comparative Politics) from the School of Public Affairs at American University. Dr. Liang's research interests encompass public management, bureaucratic politics, public policy process, policy analysis, social equity, environmental and energy policy, and comparative public administration and policy. Dr. Liang's research has appeared in a variety of public administration and public policy journals, including the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration, International Public Management Journal, and Policy Studies Journal. At the University of Illinois at Chicago, Dr. Liang offers courses on Bureaucracy and the Policy Process, Public Management Practices, Comparative Public Administration: China/U.S., Foundations of Public Service, and Environmental Policy.

Dr. Liang's current research agenda primarily covers three areas: (1) the effects of policy design and public management practices on government agencies’ environmental policy implementation activities in the U.S., as well as the implications of the adoption of equity-oriented policies for government’s program management under environmental federalism; (2) bureaucratic motivation, performance incentives, and policy implementation in government agencies and quasi-public organizations (e.g., state-owned enterprises) in China, in the context of results-based management in environmental and energy policies; and (3) the relations between organizational diversity, representativeness of the public sector, diversity management, governmental performance, and social equity.