Biography

Dr. Liu is a tenured associate professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Pharmacy, a fellow at the UMKC Healthcare Institute for Innovations in Quality, and a doctoral faculty member at the UMKC Henry W. Bloch School of Management. He holds a B.S. in pharmacy from West China University of Medical Sciences, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical socioeconomics from the University of Iowa. He has taught a variety of topics in the areas of the U.S. health care system, health care marketing, pharmacy practice management, health economics and health policy. He has extensive research experience in implementing and evaluating health care services, examining the behavior of patients or health care professionals and identifying factors that influence health care utilization. His research has been funded by government agencies, professional organizations and pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Dr. Liu is the implementation co-lead for the Kansas City Quality and Value Innovation Consortium Opioid Management Project. He has served as an associate faculty member in the Postgraduate Year 2 (PGY2) Western Missouri Psychiatric Residency Program at the Center for Behavioral Medicine, and as a preceptor in the Walgreens Local Specialty Postgraduate Year 1 (PGY1) Community Residency Program at University Health. He also served as a preceptor in the PGY1 Community Pharmacy Residency Program at UMKC from 2010 to 2018. Dr. Liu is a review editor for Frontiers in Pharmacology, an editorial board member for Advances in Therapy, an advisory board member for Dermatology and Therapy, the editor for the Topic of five participating journals on "Advancing the Knowledge and Application of Health Behavior Theories", and the editor for the Research Topic of “Using Behavioral Theories to Improve Medication Use” of Frontiers in Pharmacology. In addition, he was on the editorial boards of Journal of the American Pharmacists Association (2014-17, 2020-23), and Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy (2015-17). Dr. Liu has served as a reviewer for various journals and has been recognized as an outstanding reviewer by Journal of the American Pharmacists Association.

At the UMKC School of Pharmacy, Dr. Liu has served on the Promotion and Tenure Committee; Research Advisory Council; Graduate Programs Committee; Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee; Scholarship and Awards Committee; Focused Academic Career Track Oversight Committee; Library Committee; strategic plan working groups; and search committees for faculty positions. He is the faculty delegate of 2023-2024 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) House of Delegates. At UMKC, he served on the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Executive Committee, and is the faculty advisor for the student chapter of the Industry Pharmacists Organization. Nationally, he has served on the American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Pharmaceutical Research and Science (APhA-APRS) Policy Standing Committee, APhA-APRS Economic, Social, and Administrative Sciences Section Nomination and Award Committee, the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry Practitioner Education Advisory Committee, and International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) International Program Committee. In addition, he is a four-term delegate of APhA-APRS. Dr. Liu is also the Secretary of Knowledge Management for the AACP Public Health Special Interest Group (SIG) and has served on the SIG’s Executive Committee, Caring for the Underserved Committee, and Emergency Preparedness and Response Committee. He served on the Global Outreach Committee of the AACP Global Pharmacy Education SIG as well.