Professor (Dr.) Aya Okada is Professor of political economy and Dean of the Graduate School of International Development (GSID), Nagoya University. Between 2015 and 2019, as Vice Trustee of the university, she led Nagoya University’s HeForShe initiative, as one of the 10 University HeForShe IMPACT Champions selected by UN Women. Her research interests include economic and social development, regional planning, education and skills development, and gender and development. Currently, she leads a research project with a JSPS grant on an international comparison of the promotion of gender equality in STEM fields of higher education. Her publications include Industrial Skills Development: Globalization and Human Resource Development in Developing Countries and numerous book chapters and articles on India’s development in international journals such as World Development. Dr. Okada was a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and visiting professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in India, as an SSRC Abe Fellow. Prior to her academic career she held positions with the UN and has also held advisory roles in development projects sponsored by JICA, UNESCO, and the Japanese government. Dr. Okada holds an M.Phil. in development studies from the University of Sussex and a Ph.D. in economic development from MIT.