She migrated from Taiwan to the United States in 1988, and in 1992 Chan and her husband, Clifford Hew, co-founded Unintech Consulting Engineers, Inc. (UNINTECH), a structural and civil engineering design and consulting firm.
Chan attended the Beijing University of Technology, where she received her B.S. in Computer Software Engineering in 1987, and later received her Master's degree in computer science at the University of Texas at San Antonio in 1993.