Della is a counsellor by profession and has a postgraduate degree in Counselling Psychology. Prior to joining NLSIU, she was at Azim Premji University, Bangalore where she worked as a Resident Mentor for five years and also briefly took up a role in Academic Administration. Previously, she has also worked as a child life practitioner, and as an applied behaviour therapist.
Della enjoys working with young adults and has consistently been involved in various activities and sessions to promote wellness and positive mental health. At NLSIU, she works at the Office of Student Affairs along with Ms. Sunita Prabhu to develop and deliver various welfare initiatives for our student community.
Devyani is a researcher on policing, human rights and social justice with 17 years of experience in research-based advocacy. Her work has focused on police oversight, accountability, diversity, arrest safeguards, crime reporting and registration, early access to legal aid and policing of vulnerable populations with a focus on crimes against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Devyani previously worked with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi, where she led several research projects in India and parts of South Asia, delivered workshops, developed educational material, conducted audits, made submissions to various national and international forums and contributed to fact finding reports. Her publications can be accessed here.
From 2021 to 2023, she served as the Principal Investigator of the project ‘Benchmarking and Strengthening the Role of Women in Karnataka Police’ at NLSIU. She looks forward to working with the Dean of Research in designing and implementing research policies and processes at the University.
She serves as a member of the Indian Police Foundation, an independent think tank based in New Delhi, and also as a member of the subgroup on police for the India Justice Report.
She completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Hindu College, University of Delhi, and Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Warwick, UK.
S. Dominicraj joined NLSIU in January 2025 as the Assistant Manager – Operations. With over seven years of professional experience in civil engineering, he has cultivated expertise across diverse domains, including project execution, tender documentation, project planning and management, preparation of construction schedules, activity-wise breakdown analysis, cost estimation, and the preparation of Bills of Quantities (BOQ) in compliance with the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), the Karnataka Public Works Department (KPWD), and local government standards.
He has held pivotal roles in prestigious organisations, significantly contributing to the development and maintenance of critical infrastructure. His portfolio includes supervising campus infrastructure maintenance, leading civil works for the Ministry of Railways, and managing projects for the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL). He previously served as Estate Manager at the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru, and as Senior Executive (Civil) at the Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Limited—a joint venture between the Government of Karnataka and Indian Railways. Furthermore, he has been instrumental in executing large-scale infrastructure projects as Executive Engineer at Italian-Thai Development Cementation India Limited, Mumbai.
An alumnus of Anna University, Chennai, he holds a Master’s degree in Construction Engineering and Management, graduating with distinction, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the same institution.
Geetha joined NLSIU in 2007 and currently works in the Department of Professional and Continuing Education (PACE). She has previously worked across other departments including the Examination Department (now Academic Administration Department) where she coordinated a number of academic administrative activities. She previously was a nodal person at the University for the National Academics Depository, an initiative of the Ministry of Education, GoI, which houses digitised academic records.
She started her career as an instructor in the Sathya Commerce Institution and Sathya Computer Institution in Tumkur. Following this, she managed a team of 5 data entry operators as Team Leader at a private company in Bengaluru. Prior to joining NLSIU, she was Secretary to the Deputy Secretary (Finance) at PWD Department under the Karnataka State Improvement Project in 2005. She has also worked as Technical Staff in the offices of the Joint Commissioner (Works) and Engineer-in-Chief, at the BBMP.
Geetha holds an LLB Degree from Karnataka State Law University, Hubli and later pursued her LLM from Kuvempu University via distance mode. She also holds diplomas in Information Technology and Computer Application.
Janani has 12 years of work experience in journalism, editing, and publishing. She has joined the Office of the Dean-Research to work with faculty and research teams and will provide editorial feedback on book-length projects, increase research outputs, and standardise publishing processes in the University.
She has worked as an editor of critical and narrative non-fiction as well as literary fiction at Context (Westland Books) and Juggernaut Books; has consulted as an editor with Writer’s Side Literary Agency; and been an Assistant Managing Editor at Asymptote, an international translation journal. She began her career as a journalist with Tehelka magazine, and after a stint at Verso Books in New York, she found her home in editing.
Her editorial vision has shaped successful pitch proposals for acclaimed titles such as the Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, shortlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize. Books she has edited include India’s Undeclared Emergency: Constitutionalism and the Politics of Resistance by legal scholar Arvind Narrain, Who Owns That Song? by historian A.R. Venkatachalapathy, and Despite the State: Why India Lets Its People Down and How They Cope by journalist M. Rajshekhar. She has also provided editorial support on forthcoming books from prominent scholars and authors including historian Sarah Waheed, anthropologist Michiel Baas, musicologist Srijan Deshpande, and Khabar Lahariya co-founder Disha Mullick. In fiction, she has edited distinguished works like Jasmine Days by Benyamin, winner of the 2018 JCB Prize for Literature, and Estuary by Perumal Murugan.
She holds a B.A. in Economics from Madras University, a postgraduate diploma from the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), and a postgraduate degree from The New School for Social Research focused on writing and publishing.
Prior to joining NLSIU, he was heading the Centre for Teaching and Learning at IIM Udaipur where he helped implement IIMU’s vision of transformational learning. He led several initiatives that supported the teaching practice of faculty and worked on building a student culture that prioritizes learning in the classroom and beyond. Earlier, he served as the founding Director- Student Life at GITAM University. This role involved building a vibrant student culture, supporting student clubs, activities, and festivals, creating new initiatives for supporting student emotional and mental wellness, and managing student residences, among other initiatives. Before this, he worked as Manager, Student Affairs at IIM Udaipur. His industry experience includes a brief stint in Sales and Marketing with Marico and Unilever.
Joel’s experience as a member of the Student Council at IIMA, and active participation in several clubs and committees on campus as a student, was the start of his professional and academic interest in campus student development. He believes that fostering and catalyzing positive and engaging student cultures helps students achieve the cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal growth that is imperative during higher education.
He holds a PhD from the Ravi J Mathai Centre for Education Innovation at IIM Ahmedabad and specializes in student development in higher education. He completed his PGDM from IIM Ahmedabad in 2007 and BE from University of Pune in 2004.
Justin has over eight years of diverse experience in corporate, government, and higher education sectors. In his previous role as a Lead Venture Coach at GITAM (Deemed to be University), he was integral to creating a vibrant university-wide entrepreneurship ecosystem. He has also worked with the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India, where he focused on addressing gaps in the employment market through outreach, research, and collaboration with academic institutions and government agencies.
Prior to that, he worked at Cognizant on strategic consulting projects across Healthcare, Banking & Financial Services and Organizational Change Management domains; and at Mobius Knowledge Services in Human Resources, with a focus on recruitment. Justin is a recipient of the 2019 International Labour Organization Fellowship in Turin, Italy, and the 2012 Ford Motor Company Global Scholars Scholarship in Washington D.C.
He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai and a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya, Bhopal.
Ms. Jyoti Singh is Manager at the Department of Professional & Continuing Education (PACE). Jyoti holds an MBA with a dual degree in Marketing- Sales, and Operations and a strong operations background. She brings more than five years of work experience, having worked exclusively in the field of education. She joined us from upGrad Education Pvt. Ltd., where she was working as an Assistant Manager and handling online MBA programmes along with the sourcing of subject matter experts.
Jyoti believes in the holistic development of administrative operations, and her constant endeavour has been to create a balanced workspace that will result in better productivity. Through her work at PACE in the University, she hopes to work towards empowering the online legal educational system and making it accessible.
Captain K S Cariappa is a naval veteran with over 30 years experience in operations, training, building strategic infrastructure, and driving cutting edge technology across large establishments.
Following his training at the Naval Academy, Capt.Cariappa graduated with a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from the Naval College of Engineering, Lonavala, and an MSc in Defence and Strategic Studies from the prestigious Defence Services Staff College, Wellington.
He has worked across various organisations of the Indian Navy, including warships and naval shipyards at Mumbai and Karwar. During his long military career, he participated in ‘Ops Vijay’ during the Kargil crisis of 1999, and ‘Ops Blossom’ which involved evacuating Indian citizens from Libya in 2011. He is a recipient of the ‘Chief of Naval Staff’ Commendation for establishing a strategic naval base on the west coast of the country.
At NLSIU, he will lead and execute all operational functions to meet the University’s evolving needs and strategic goals across a variety of its functions including infrastructure projects, estate, and facilities. He will also work in partnership with teams across the University to drive innovation and transformation within and across functions.
Outside of work, Capt. Cariappa is a passionate sports enthusiast who enjoys squash, golf, and swimming, and also holds a black belt in Karate.
Kalpana is a Chartered Accountant who has worked extensively in the Healthcare sector. She was formerly Group Finance Head of Jain Group of Hospitals, a well-established mutlidisciplinary super-specialty hospital & pharmacy cluster. During her tenure, she was instrumental in fostering an agile, thriving organizational ecosystem, and led all finance activities including ERP implementation with integrated finance module, short term and long term fundraising, and risk management. Her role involved managing finances of clinical research projects, the postgraduate medical education department (accredited by the National Board of Examinations & Medical sciences), and undergraduate clinical teaching for the International Medical School of Malaysian Medical Council.
She has also worked on charity projects funded by Smile Train Inc., USA and World Diabetes Foundation, Denmark which benefited thousands of needy patients. She is an advocate of empathetic leadership – to recognize unique and diverse skill sets, empower team members, and to create a positive culture of higher productivity. She has previously worked with the Rajarajeshwari Group of medical and dental institutions and was also a practicing CA from 1997 to 2004, before she ventured into the industry.
