Dr. Snehal Donde is the dean of administrative affairs at the Bhaktivedanta Research Centre, University of Mumbai, located at Govardhan Ecovillage (GEV), Palghar, Maharashtra. She is also the chief research officer of GEV, which has been awarded a United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) award in 2017. She has more than three decades of administrative, teaching, and research experience. She holds a double PhD in zoology and management studies and has successfully guided nine PhD students.
Dr. Donde has received several research grants for projects including one on Ganga River pollution, erosion and sedimentation studies. She has chaired sessions at many prestigious international conferences and has over 80 peer-reviewed research publications to her credit, including nine books. She received the Green Crusader award from the UNEP and India’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. She is a member of the advisory council of People’s World Commission on Droughts and Floods, Ulrika, Sweden.
In her four months as Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at the City University of New York’s Bronx Community College, Bronx, NY, Dr. Donde will teach courses on environmental science in the Departments of Chemistry, Earth Science and Environmental Sciences. She will also work with the Department of History, particularly with the faculty offering courses on human geography, and provide students with newer perspectives on rural India. She will conduct collective social learning workshops, and seminars on various sustainability initiatives centered around water quality and scarcity, rural development, and climate change resilience.