Lhawang Ugyel has an extensive background and experiences working in both academia as well as public service. As an academic, and in addition to ANU, he taught at UNSW Canberra, Tallin University of Technology (as Visiting Professor) and University of Papua New Guinea (as Visiting Lecturer).

He also worked with Bhutan’s civil service for close to 10 years (as Policy Analyst and Senior Human Resources Officer) 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 worked with WHO as a short-term technical consultant on three separate projects related to community health workers 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 with journals, such as, Democratization, 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).

Lhawang is currently working on Buddhist and Oceanic aspects of Non-Western Public Administration and the implementation of happiness and well-being policies.