Dr. Lu is a gerontologist with expertise in social work, public health, and statistics. Her research interests broadly include gerontological social work, health disparity, social welfare policy related to aging, and quantitative methodology. She specializes in investigating the socioeconomic and cultural determinants of health in later life using cross-national and longitudinal survey data. She also has extensive experience in utilizing causal inference analysis to evaluate social welfare policies (e.g., elder abuse, anti-poverty, food insecurity) in China and the United States, with an ultimate goal of advancing social justice and health equity through policy advocacy.