Director
Antoine Barnaart
Antoine Barnaart has nearly 40 years' experience teaching and managing higher education and vocational programs, both in Australian and internationally. He is a former Pro Vice-Chancellor of Charles Darwin University and has recently returned to Australia after 13 years of leading multilevel Australian Government education programs in China, Bahrain, Fiji and Kiribati. He was the Team Leader of Australia’s largest education aid program in China and has significant management experience in cross-cultural environments.
In September 2007 Antoine was awarded the Chinese National Friendship Award by Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan, in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the development and construction of China by a foreign expert. This is the highest award a foreign expert can receive in China.
Visiting Chinese Deputy Director
Dr. Zhou Wenhua
Dr. Zhou Wenhua, Deputy Director of CIQ and Associate Professor of Nanjing Normal University. He has been engaged in second language acquisition research and international Chinese teaching for many years. From 2015 to 2018, he worked at the Confucius Institute of North Carolina State University in the United States and has been the Deputy Director of the Confucius Institute of Queensland University of Technology in Australia since 2021.
Business and Education Co-ordinator
Lisha Song
Lisha Song has a Bachelor of Education from China (Southwest University), Master of Educational Studies from Belgium (Catholic University of Leuven), Diploma and Advanced Diploma of Interpretation (Southbank TAFE) and a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment (Holmesglen Institute. Lisha was also a key member of the Chinese Team of the Australia-China (Chongqing) Vocational Education and Training Project (ACCVETP), working as an interpreter, translator and replication expert, on the five and half year project. This project was the largest Australian Aid funded (AusAID) education project with China and considered by the Australian Government as one of its most successful Chinese joint projects.
Lisha has worked in the international education area at QUT for five years. The position predominately involved international business and teacher professional development. Prior to this appointment, she was the Administrative Support Officer at CIQ.
Lisha has extensive professional and international experience in vocation education, higher education and early childhood/primary/secondary education. She works to coordinate CIQ’s school, community and professional development as well as collaborates with our domestic and international stakeholders for business development.