Dr. Chao obtained her MD and PhD from the University of Pittsburgh. She completed her internal medicine residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center followed by medical oncology fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She joined the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the VAPHS in 2020 and serves on the teaching faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

At VAPHS Dr. Chao is working to improve access to quality care and to clinical trials for Veterans with thoracic and head and neck cancers. She serves as a co-Investigator for the VISN 4 Clinical Cancer Research Network.