Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies

Margaret Mangel Faculty Fellow

137 Stanley Hall
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211
Phone: (573) 882-9638
E-mail: zhaol1@missouri.edu
Vita (PDF)

Education

PhD, University of Missouri, 2015; MS, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, 2012; BS, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, 2009.

Bio

Dr. Zhao is the Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor in the Textile and Apparel Management Department at the University of Missouri. Her teaching experience is dynamic in not only course content but also cultural diversity. She has taught various courses including Omni-Channel Retailing, Consumer Data Analytics, Information Visualization, Product Development, Branding, Global Sourcing, etc. She utilizes her experience and interaction with students to integrate real-world situations and challenges into the course content, projects, and related assignments in order to better prepare students for their future careers. Dr. Zhao’s professional experience includes management positions in the sales and marketing departments of premier brand companies in China. She has published over seventy research papers in diverse international referred journals, book chapters, and conferences on the topics of digital innovations, fashion data analytics, and sustainability. She also has received numerous awards for research excellence from international conferences and international refereed journals including the 2022 Rising Star Award from International Textile and Apparel Association, three times Paper of Distinction Award from various international conferences, 2023 HES Distinguished Teacher Award, etc.

Research Interests

Dr. Zhao’s research interest is to understand the impact of digital transformation in the global fashion supply chain through digital innovation and big data analytics. Her research is categorized as interdisciplinary in nature with aspects of textile and apparel management, informatics and data science, and business studies. She has adopted three strategies in her research agenda: 1) exploring the impact of digital innovations in the different sections across the global fashion supply chain; 2) developing analytical methods and tools to compile fashion data and extract useful insights; and 3) giving strong focus to global sustainability issues in fashion. She utilizes a combination of computational and statistical approaches in her research.