Professor Zhanming Liang

Professor Zhanming Liang

College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, QLD, Australia

Dr. Zhanming Liang PhD, MSc, MB BS, serves as Associate Dean of Research Education and Associate Professor in Health Systems Management and Policy. Dr. Liang was medically trained and worked as a physician, planning and evaluation consultant and senior manager before embarking her academic career and completed a PhD (health reforms and management workforce development) in 2007. Since then, Dr. Liang has become a leading researcher in management competency and management workforce development in the health sector with expertise in healthcare quality and patient safety, project planning and evaluation, evidence-informed decision-making, and health system design and improvement. She has trained many managers and leaders working in different health sectors in developing their management capacity in Australia and South-East Asia for the past decade. As President of the Society for Health Administration Programs in Education, she has played a leading role in shaping the health management workforce capacity development in Asia Pacific.

The Management Competency Assessment Tool (MCAP Tool) that Dr. Liang and colleagues developed and validated has been used to assess the competence of middle and senior level managers and leaders working in the health sector in Australia and many other countries providing evidence to guide management capacity building in the system, organisation and individual levels. She is currently supervising 8 PhD candidates and expanding the management competency study to the Veterinary Industry. Her current research projects also include building capacity of mid-level management in the prevention of burnout amongst frontline service staff; project management in health and community care – application, challenges and career pathway, and integrating a management capacity building approach in district health planning.

Dr. Liang has published substantially in the areas of leadership, management and health system development including the book entitled 'Project management in health and community services: getting good ideas to work' which has been adopted as a textbook by many Master of Public Health and Health Administration Programs in Australia..

Updated 10 October 2023