Dr. Lhawang Ugyel

Dr.Lhawang Ugyel has an extensive background and experience working in both academia as well as public service. As an academic, he is currently at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University (ANU). In addition to ANU, he taught at UNSW Canberra, Tallin University of Technology (as Visiting Professor) and the University of Papua New Guinea (as Visiting Lecturer).

He also worked with Bhutan’s civil service for close to 10 years (as Policy Analyst with His Majesty's Secretariat and Senior Human Resources Officer at the Royal Civil Service Commission Secretariat) and worked with the Australian Diabetes Educators Association (as a part-time research officer) for approx. three years whilst doing his PhD at ANU. Since 2019, Lhawang has worked with the WHO as a short-term technical consultant on three separate projects related to community health worker programs in PNG and Vanuatu.

Lhawang’s research specialises in public policy and administration, focusing on public sector reforms in developing countries, and has published in journals such as Democratisation, Policy and Politics, Review of Policy Research, Australian Journal of Public Administration and Public Administration and Development. His PhD thesis was also published as a monograph (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).

Additionally, Lhawang is an Academic Editor of Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies, Editorial Board of Public Administration & Development; Reviewer (Bhutan), Bertelsmann Transformation Index; Editorial Board of Halduskultuur-The Estonian Journal of Administrative Culture and Digital Governance and Editorial Board of the Australian Journal of Public Administration. Lhawang is currently working on Buddhist and Oceanic aspects of Non-Western Public Administration and the implementation of happiness and well-being policies.