Liyang is a seasoned health economist with over a decade of experience integrating and analyzing complex health and demographic data, including claims, surveys, and administrative records. At NORC, she leads pivotal projects focused on payment reform evaluation, demonstrating her commitment to improving health care systems.

Currently, Liyang spearheads the quantitative analysis for the ACO REACH, an initiative aimed at transforming the health system to improve health outcomes through high-quality, affordable, and person-centered care for all beneficiaries. Her expertise plays a crucial role in driving this mission forward.

She also assessed impact of  Next Generation Accountable Care Organization (NGACO) model, where she honed her skills in advanced data analysis and healthcare policy evaluation. In addition, Liyang serves as the quantitative lead on a Commonwealth Fund project evaluating the affordability of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).

Prior to joining NORC, Liyang was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder. There, she integrated data from the U.S. Census, individual tax filings, registered births, and the American Community Survey (ACS) to establish a 15-year Reproduction in People's Lives (RIPL) dataset aimed at assessing the socioeconomic quality of life for U.S. women. She also spent one year at the University of Pittsburgh Medicaid Research Center, working on several evaluations regarding Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Liyang has a wide range of research publications, including exploring late-life depression and cognitive function among older adults in the US using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2011–2014 (2019); examining the association of late-life depression with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality among community-dwelling older adults in a systematic review and meta-analysis (2019); and investigating the impact of Maryland's Global Budget Revenue Program on neonatal intensive care unit admissions and infant mortality (2021). Liyang has also explored churn in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program changes in Medicaid expenditure and acute care utilization (2024).