Mahak Agrawal

Public Policy Officer, ITACUS

Mahak Agrawal works at Columbia's Center on Global Energy Policy on the Carbon Management Research Initiative. Trained as an urban planner, she is also supporting the Switzerland-based ITA Committee on Underground Spaces to expand the network and perspectives associated with underground spaces. In April 2021, Mahak earned her second master's in public administration from Columbia University as a Shardashish Interschool Fellow and SIPA Environmental Fellow. The Shardashish Fellowship helped Mahak to pursue a second master's and not worry about financial stress amid the pandemic. It helped her to use her time to blend her passion for art and sustainability. For her works on water and sanitation in India, Mahak is nominated to the 2021 Goalkeepers Global Goals Award felicitated by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In various capacities, Mahak has worked with the International Society of City and Regional Planners, Hague; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Town and Country Planning Organization, Government of India; Institute of Transport Economics, Oslo, to name a few. In 2019, she founded Spatial Perspectives as an initiative communicating 360-degree perspectives on pressing urban-regional challenges. In her spare time, Mahak experiments with sustainable artworks showcasing the cultural heritage of India and tales of environmental challenges.