She received her BE degree in management engineering from Hefei University of Technology, MS degree in management science and Ph.D. in finance from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 2004. Zhang has been awarded several research grants at the college and the university levels and was the recipient of the M. Albert Burke faculty fellowship award in 2009. She has taught corporate finance at the undergraduate and graduate levels and global business in the Georgia Online MBA program. Her research has been published in academic journals such as Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Risk and Insurance etc.