Y. Victoria Zhang, Ph.D., M.B.A.

Professional Background

Victoria Zhang, PhD, MBA, has one foot planted in strategic planning and the other in the real world trenches of clinical lab operations. As the Vice Chair for Clinical Enterprise Strategy, she is focused on developing a vision for standardization and efficiency across all entities within the UR Medicine network. This includes an ever-evolving plan to expand that same network and develop sustainable strategies to support this growth.

"I think people in this region deserve the same quality of care and clinical expertise as those in Rochester. That's the vision of the Enterprise," she said.

While actively manifesting this vision to reality, Zhang has her other foot planted firmly in the lab where she is the Director of the Clinical Mass Spectrometry and Toxicology lab, and Associate Director of Clinical Chemistry. Being involved in the trenches with the front line staff has helped her continuously appreciate the daily challenges of clinical operations, and inform her long-term vision for the Enterprise.

Zhang came to the U.S. after studying Microbiology and Engineering at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua University. She earned her PhD in Biochemistry and Bioinformatics from the University of Minnesota specializing in proteomics and biomarker discovery. Combining her interests in healthcare and translational research, she then pursued her Clinical Chemistry Fellowship at Harvard Medical School to make a direct impact on patient care. Inspired to be an effective leader, she later earned her MBA from the Wharton School.

Since Zhang joined the faculty at URMC in 2011, she has taken on key leadership responsibilities both within the department and in national and international organizations. She is the Past Chair and Treasurer of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) regional section and the Past President and Advisor of the North American Chinese Clinical Chemists Association (NACCCA).

Zhang was the Founding Chair who spearheaded the effort to create a new AACC division called Mass Spectrometry and Separation Sciences. She represented the AACC to deliver public comments regarding laboratory developed tests oversight issues to the FDA and was invited as the sole official Clinical Chemist representative on the "Cancer Moonshot" APOLLO Project Technology Working Group. Zhang is currently the Founding Faculty Chair of the AACC Asian Pacific Working group, an international lab quality initiative.

All of this experience in leading national and international programs has equipped her to take on the challenge of spurring growth and integration across the healthcare system as the Vice Chair for Clinical Enterprise. As she explains, teams within the clinical enterprise have complementary functions and talents. Pathologists and medical directors at the affiliated hospitals use their broad knowledge and an intimate understanding of the local community to serve their unique needs. The flagship medical center has experts who continuously develop cutting-edge technologies and best practices to provide in-depth insights into specialized clinical services. Working together, she envisions a wide-reaching service that allows everyone within the Enterprise to benefit.

"The ultimate goal of the lab Enterprise is to have an integrated and synergistic system to serve our patients and enable UR Medicine to become the care of choice in this region."

Outside of work, Victoria is experienced in mixed martial arts, ballroom dance and likes to collect stuffed animals from the conferences she attends around the world. She enjoys watching historical biographies, animated movies and nerdy TV shows like The Big Bang Theory. Her personal motto is "For all the things you do in life, do it like you mean it!"

Research