Leadership for Disaster Resilience

Jacquleen Joseph is Professor at the Jamsetji Tata School of Disaster Studies ( JTSDS) at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. She has a master's in social work, followed by a MPhil and PhD in Psychiatric Social Work from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), India. She has been associated with JTSDS since its inception, and presently is the Dean and Chairperson of the Centre for Disaster Management. Her research, field action, and teaching are around psychosocial care and support in disaster and humanitarian contexts. She is actively engaged in long-term research and field action in the psychosocial domain in several disasters, starting with the 2004 tsunami to that of the Nepal earthquake in 2015 and COVID pandemic. Some of the recent research and mobility grants in her areas of research interest are Disaster Resilience Leadership Research and Fellowship Project (BMG research grants 2017-19), Transboundary Water Governance and Capacity Building for Civic Engagement (ICIMOD-HUC Research Networking Grant, 2021), Epidemic Prediction and Risk Reduction using AI/ML (Newton Bhabha Research Networking Grant, 2021-22), and Disaster Risk Creation in Urban Resettlement Processes (Independent Research Fund Denmark-2021-25).

Suchita Awasthi holds a master's in climate science and policy from TERI School of Advanced Studies, India. Her specialisation involves vulnerability to disasters and climate change, community-based adaptation, and water resources management. She has almost ten years of experience in integrating climate science expertise into development research and practice. She is currently National Project Coordinator at Wetlands International South Asia. She has previously worked with not-for-profit organisations on rural development, community-based adaptation projects, and development of participatory approaches for vulnerability assessments. She has also worked with TISS as Senior Documentation Officer on projects related to disaster resilience building.

Zubin R. Mulla is Professor at the School of Management and Labour Studies at TISS, Mumbai. He has a degree in mechanical engineering, followed by a post-graduate diploma in business management and a doctorate in management from XLRI-Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur. Prior to joining academics in 2005, he worked for seven years in engineering design and management consulting. As Management Consultant, he coordinated large-scale change management efforts in manufacturing and service organisations. His research interests include transformational leadership, values, Indian philosophy, careers, and evidence-based management. His research involves use of content analysis, survey methods, laboratory experiments, and field experiments. His pioneering contribution has been in conceptualising and validating the construct of Karma-Yoga in management literature.