#  Xu Zhao 

Associate Professor at the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary

 

 

 



   ![Xu Zhao](/sites/g/files/omnuum4496/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/2025-08/Picture1_0.jpg?h=fa3664f9&itok=hMSTNEG2) 

 



 





 

Xu Zhao is Associate Professor at the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary. The goal of her research is three-fold: to understand the risk factors (psychological and sociocultural) that threaten the positive development of school-aged youth, to identify the protective factors that foster resiliency, and to develop intervention strategies for the protection and promotion of youth wellbeing. She conducts empirical research in China and Canada. She also engages in scholarly discussions on the impact of macro-level national and global trends in educational policies on micro-level youth performance. She is the author of *Competition and Compassion in Chinese Secondary Education* (Palgrave MacMillan, 2015). Her research has been published in leading academic journals and featured by international media including the *Washington Post*, *Education Week*, and *Voice of America*. She earned her doctorate in Human Development & Psychology from Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2011.