Prof. Jessica Li is an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and a registered social worker with an academic background in social work (Hong Kong) and criminology (UK). Before transitioning to academia, she gained over a decade of hands-on experience working with juvenile delinquents, offenders, and drug abusers.

Prof. Li is devoted to creating safe and secure communities, particularly for disadvantaged groups such as elderly victims of financial fraud, children at risk of online sexual exploitation, and youths arrested by the police, through research, education and practice. Her research has been supported by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (RGC), the Guangdong Natural Science Foundation, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). She actively collaborates with international scholars from the United States, the United Kingdom, Africa, the Philippines, and Australia to advance research and publications.

Committed to bridging academia and practice, Prof. Li engages with the social work profession, the criminal justice system, and the industrial sector through innovative initiatives. In 2016, she collaborated with students to develop a mobile app aimed at preventing financial fraud against the elderly, an effort that earned significant media recognition for its creativity. In 2018, she designed a VR package, From Virtual Reality to Reality, to enhance social work teaching with a focus on working with offenders. This package was empirically tested, and its findings were published in 2019. In 2021, she introduced another VR package, Aspiration, which promoted a learning-to-learn strategy among students. Most recently, in 2025, she developed a training package, Build2Stop, which combines video vignettes and LEGO bricks to address online sexual exploitation in school settings.

In 2024, she was titled by the Hong Kong Academy of Social Work as Fellow in recognizing her contribution to transforming research to practice. 

In 2024, her research merit was recognized in Asia through the Best Paper Award at the Asian Criminology Association Annual Conference.

In 2025, her outstanding scholarship was recognized by the RGC Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme.

Over the years, Prof. Li has actively contributed to the University through various roles, including serving as Programme Leader of the MSW programme, Director of the Professional Practice and Assessment Centre, and Executive Editor of the China Journal of Social Work. She has also been a member of the Institutional Review Board (IRB), the Departmental Staffing Committee, and the Departmental Research Committee, both as an appointed and elected member. Additionally, she has participated in the Assessment Panel of the Hong Kong Social Workers Registration Board.