Welcome to my organic web site which will grow as my academic and professional lives grow. Feel free to look around and contact me if you do not find something you are looking for or are interested in my projects and research or to say hi!

A bit about me.....

I'm originally from India and have recently relocated to NYC via Houston, TX. I am interested in the performance of (complex) relationships among people, the systems we create, and the construction of our social lives and realities. As a social "actor" ("scientist") I combine interdisciplinary ideas and methodologies to reflect on, design and facilitate the performance of transformational relational processes.

In addition to my position of Associate Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy at Mercy College, I'm currently the Director of Research with the International Trauma Studies Program, affiliated with Columbia University, where I'm  researching the use of theater for community resiliency and psychosocial practices with refugees of political violence. I'm also an online faculty member at Massey University in New Zealand and doctoral advisor at the Taos-Tilburg Social Sciences Program, Netherlands.

For the past 20 years, I have been a consultant and designer of performative and dialogic processes within human systems—organizational, community, family, learning and research systems. I'm a licensed couples and family therapist and coach for generative professional and personal relationships. Over the last seven years I have consulted on disaster preparedness and response to organizations in profit, non-profit and governmental sectors. I received a leadership award from the City of Houston's Disaster Mental Health Crises Response Team for directing the Mental Health Services at the George R. Brown Katrina Shelter in 2005. I'm one of 12 US trainers in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network's Psychological First Aid. Along with Harlene Anderson, I co-founded the International Journal for Collaborative Practices. I serve on the advisory editorial board of Family Process and as the associate editor of The Qualitative Report.

I received my PhD in Human Development with specialization in Marriage and Family Therapy from Virginia Tech and completed the Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders from Stanford University’s Business School. I embrace living as processes of improvised inquiry.