Dr. Namesh Killemsetty

Bio

Dr. Namesh Killemsetty comes with over a decade of academic and corporate experience. Bridging his backgrounds in civil engineering and public policy, he is a transdisciplinary scholar with a focus on urban governance, housing, and community rights for marginalized populations. Prior to joining MIT-WPU, he was previously working as an Associate Professor and Dean for Academic Affairs at the Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, O.P. Jindal Global University. Dr. Killemsetty holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of Massachusetts Boston (2021), an M.S. in Public Policy from the same institution, an M.Tech in Infrastructure Management from CEPT University, and a B.Tech in Civil Engineering from MNNIT Allahabad. Prior to his doctoral studies, he gained practical experience in the civil engineering industry, working with the Mumbai Metro and Jindal Steel and Power Limited. Dr. Killemsetty’s research is predominantly ethnographic, conducting extensive fieldwork across multiple Indian states including Odisha, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Delhi. By integrating theories from Urban Studies, Policy Analysis, Operations Research, and Decision Sciences, he creataes participatory approaches to policymaking that examine urban marginalization through lenses of gender, identity, class, and caste. Dr. Killemsetty's scholarly contributions have been widely recognized, including the 2021 Urban Affairs Association Alma H. Young Emerging Scholar Award and a global research award from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, USAID, and the World Bank Group. In his academic role, he has taught courses on GIS in Policy Analysis, Project Management, Research Design, Statistics, and Qualitative Research Methods.