General Secretary

Rachna Khare is full-time Professor in Architecture Department at School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal. Prior to this she was a Senior Research Fellow with Jamsetji Tata Universal Design Research Chair at National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad and taught at Birla Institute of Technology. Rachna is a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Fellowship and was affiliated with Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA during her PhD.

Her research interests in the field of ‘Universal Design’ and ‘Designing for Special Needs’ have earned her grants and awards nationally and internationally. Her research papers appeared in the publications like Taylor and Francis, Sage, HFES, EDRA, RESNA and Archnet MIT. She has organized many national and international workshops and competitions on ‘Universal Design’ and remained jury member of Berkeley Prize Essay Competition, endorsed by UC Berkeley, USA.

Rachna works closely with Government of India and United Nations; she represented and collaborated with UN/UNESCAP/UNESCO on several occasions. She is one of the authors of Universal Design India Principles developed at NID in 2011. She has received many awards for her work. She is recently recognized as ‘Inspired Teacher’ by Hon’ble President of India as well as stayed Scholar-in-Residence at Rashtrapati Bhavan. In her position, Rachna also co-ordinates Centre for Human Centric Research (CHCR) at SPA Bhopal.