Shirley was born in Guangzhou, China, and grew up in Los Angeles. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. During her undergraduate studies, she worked as a certified pharmacy technician, gaining patient care experience in the emergency department and on the surgical nursing floor at USC Arcadia Hospital.
At the UCSF Edward and Pearl Fein Memory and Aging Center, Shirley previously served as the primary clinical research coordinator for the NACC UDS 4.0 (ENHANCE) project and assisted with visits for participants who spoke Cantonese, Mandarin, and English in the MULTIVERSE study. She is currently a clinical project coordinator for the Tee Lab, where she handles administrative, operational, and data management tasks.