Nandita Abraham

Nandita Abraham is the Founding Dean of BITS Design School, Mumbai, under the aegis of BITS Pilani, an “Institution of Eminence”, where she leads efforts to revolutionise design education through collaboration, sustainability, and transdisciplinary learning.

With three decades in design education and institutional leadership, and global exposure spanning the US, Hong Kong, and India, she brings together expertise from the creative industries and academia. Her writing extends the same lens to systems beyond the classroom and leadership in higher education.

She has led the Tihar Jail Fashion Project, training over 300 inmates towards sustainable livelihoods, the Dastkar Ranthambore project, which rehabilitated people from three displaced villages, and Sewa Learning Centres, among other initiatives. The same instinct now shapes how she builds curriculum and leads institutions at BITS Design School: design judged by who it reaches, not by what it intended.

She serves on the FICCI National Higher Education Committee, holds Independent Director positions on corporate boards, and has held leadership roles at IFFTI and the CII National Design Committee. She has lectured at Northumbria University, the University of Delaware, and London College of Fashion, and presented at institutions and conferences across the US, the UK, Europe, Asia, and Australia.