Rose Nan-Ping Chen was born and raised in Taiwan. She graduated from the National Taiwan University with a degree in agricultural chemistry in 1971. She received her master's degree in medical microbiology at the University of Illinois Medical Center at the Chicago campus in 1973. She worked as a Research Associate at the University of Pennsylvania, Merck Research Laboratory, and Medical College of Virginia. After which she was a business owner for fifteen years.

Ms. Chen has been a long time devotee of arts, spirituality, and community service. She previously had served on the boards of the Maymont Foundation, The Arts Council of Richmond, Communities in Schools and Friends of Comboni Missionary Sisters, Ikebana of Richmond, VA, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts' Multicultural Advisory Council as well as an advisory panelist for Virginia Commission for the Arts. She is an alumna of Leadership Metro Richmond, class of 1998. Ms. Chen currently holds memberships in the Rotary Club of Washington DC, American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing. She also serves on the boards of Center stage Foundation in Richmond, Virginia, and Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, Charlottesville, Virginia.