Ishleen Dheer
Sr. Environment Specialist, NIUA
Ishleen identifies as a passionate urban development professional who strives for learning about new subjects to feed her curious mind. Cities and their complexities have always piqued her interest that led her to work in Urban Policy space. She started her professional journey working as an Architect with the Delhi Development Authority, where she learned the workings of government systems and about large-scale projects to eventually working on the Master Plan of Delhi 2041 at NIUA towards formulating a strategic framework for the city and diverse sectors.
She has over 8 years of work experience in Urban Policymaking and Implementation, and Urban Planning. In past, she has worked on promoting development of Child Friendly Cities at NIUA, an initiative towards shaping better urban environment for children in India. She has also worked with United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as an Architect/ Planner for the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in different urban centres of Himachal Pradesh. She has worked with Society for Participatory Research in South East Asia (PRIA) towards participatory planning intended at creating responsive cities by engaging citizens.
In her work, she has emphasized on data-informed strategies and planning cities for people. Currently, she is venturing into urban development that is conscious to natural ecosystems and how cities can adapt better to climate change by adopting nature based solutions and mapping existing condition of their natural resources. Her research interests include climate change adaptation in cities, environment analytics and management, nature based solutions and sustainable urban planning.
She has her training in Architecture and is a gold medalist in Masters in Urban Regeneration from Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi.