Dr Zina O'Leary

Areas of expertise

• Evaluation
• Communication
• Research methodologies

Find out more about ANZSOG's Executive Master of Public Administration

Find out more about ANZSOG's Future public sector leaders' series, featuring Dr Zina O'Leary

Zina O’Leary was awarded her PhD as a US National Science Foundation Fellow and is currently an ANZSOG Senior Fellow and adjunct Professor at the Joseph R. Biden Jr. School of Public Policy, University of Delaware. Previously, she was the coordinator of the Workplace Integrated Learning program at the University of Sydney Business School, where she strived to help workplace-based students maximize the impact of their communication and conduct impactful applied research.

Zina also has an extensive history as a consultant to the World Health Organization, contributing to many projects on community engagement and community consultation across the Asia Pacific Region. She is the author of several books for Sage Publications including Workplace Research, Researching Real World Problems, The Essential Guide to Doing your Research Project and The Social Science Jargon Buster.

Prior to her engagement by the University of Delaware and ANZSOG, Professor O’Leary’s teaching experience included courses on research methods, evaluation and professional development at the University of Sydney Business School (2013-2017), University of Sydney Graduate School of government (2011-2017), University of Western Sydney (1995-2010), Hong Kong Polytechnic University (1998-2008) and the International Medical University at Kuala Lumpur (2007-2010).

Career Highlights:

• 2019 Nominated for the Australian College of Education Quality Teaching Award
• 2017 Dean’s Citation for Excellence in Unit Coordination Sydney Business School
• 2016 Dean’s Citation for Excellence in Unit Coordination Sydney Business School
• 2015 Dean’s Citation for Excellence in Unit Coordination Sydney Business School
• 2014 Dean’s Citation for Tutoring University of Sydney Business School
• 2008 Nominated for the Australian College of Education Quality Teaching Award
• 2002 Vice Chancellor’s Excellence Award commended for social justice
• 2002 Nominated for the Australian College of Education Quality Teaching Award
• 1999 UWS Teaching Excellence Award
• Subject lead for ANZSOG’s capstone Work Based Project unit, which emphasize research communication as well as research design
• Developer/lecturer of several ANZSOG Executive Education Program
• Lead in the development of a whole of organization program on impactful communication City leader for EMPA core unit Decision Making Under Uncertainty (DMUU)
• Leader for curriculum review of Decision Making Under Uncertainty (DMUU)
• Led the development of a Sydney University multi-disciplinary and multi-school Industry and Community Placement Program
• Workplace Integrated Learning Academic Co-ordinator, responsible for overseeing academic integrity and consistency for 23 deliveries of Sydney University Business School’s Industry and Community Placement Programs
• Unit Coordinator BUSS6500 Postgraduate Industry Placement Program (Sydney), and BUSS6510 Postgraduate Industry Placement Program (Chile)
• Senior Research Fellow, ANZSOG
• Held public policy and research methods academic positions at USYD, and University of Western Sydney.
• Extensive history as a consultant to both Government and the private sector and was the research coordinator for the Centre for Environmental Health Development at the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre
• Author of numerous publications/ books including The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project 4e (in press 2020), Research Questions (2018), Research Proposals (2018) and Presentations that Motivate (2019). Workplace Research (2016), Researching Real World Problems (2005) and The Social Science Jargon Buster (2007).

ANZSOG programs

Dr O'Leary teaches in the following ANZSOG courses:

• Executive Master of Public Administration (EMPA)
  - Work-Based Project (Subject leader)
• Learning to communicate for Impact and Influence (workshop leader) at Melbourne and Sydney
• Powerful presentations: Motivating an audience to action (workshop leader)
• Evidence and evaluation (workshop leader)

Selected publications

• O’Leary, Z. (2021) The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project (4^thedition).London: Sage
• O’Leary, Z. (in press 2019) Little Quick Fix: Presentations that Motivate. London: Sage
• O’Leary, Z. (2018) Little Quick Fix: Research Question. London: Sage
• O’Leary, Z. (2018) Little Quick Fix: Research Proposals. London: Sage
• O'Leary, Z. and Hunt, J. (2016) Workplace Research: Conducting Small-scale Research in Organizations. London: Sage
• O’Leary, Z. (2005) Researching Real-World Problems: A Guide to Methods of Inquiry. London: Sage