Spotlight on Tomorrow’s Leaders: WIN DRR Rising Star Award 2025 Finalists
Across Asia and the Pacific, a new generation of women is emerging as rising stars in disaster risk reduction (DRR), bringing fresh energy and innovative ideas to some of the region’s most pressing challenges. In 2025, seven exceptional early-career professionals have been selected as finalists for the Women’s International Network for Disaster Risk Reduction (WIN DRR) Rising Star Award. Their diverse experiences highlight the creative and forward-looking solutions needed to tackle the growing frequency and severity of disasters, as well as the impacts of climate change.
Hakimun Nesha Bappy, Bangladesh
Hakimun Nesha Bappy is a passionate humanitarian making an impact in one of the world’s most vulnerable regions—Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. Her ability to bridge grassroots realities with institutional coordination has elevated disaster preparedness and protection in the Rohingya refugee camps and cyclone-prone coastal zones.
For over six years, she has been on the frontline of humanitarian action in Rohingya refugee camps and host communities, supporting the prevention of gender-based violence, child protection, and promoting mental wellbeing. Working with organizations such as Terre des Hommes, IOM, and UNHCR partners, she channels her experience into empowering communities to become more resilient.
Bappy voluntarily serves as the Chief Executive and President of the Management Committee at the Women Aid & Youth Development Organization (WAYDO), a women- and youth-led civil society organization, where she leads strategic efforts to strengthen women’s leadership in disaster preparedness and recovery. Under her guidance, WAYDO has become a platform for advancing gender-inclusive DRR policies and practices across coastal and refugee-affected communities in Bangladesh. In this role, she coordinates multisectoral programmes that integrate women’s empowerment with disaster risk awareness. She has built a strong volunteer base, established community youth and women-led groups, and mentored dozens of emerging women leaders from Rohingya and host communities.
During Cyclone Mocha in 2023, Bappy coordinated a local rapid-response team under WAYDO’s emergency wing, mobilizing volunteers to distribute non-food items, disseminate life-saving information, and provide psychosocial support to displaced women and children — reaching over 500 affected families within 48 hours.
While working with Terre des Hommes and TAI Social Foundation, Bappy supervised community outreach teams and adolescent centers, ensuring that projects were inclusive, culturally appropriate, and gender-responsive. She introduced participatory planning methods in awareness-raising sessions on gender-based violence, safeguarding, and child protection—enhancing local trust, increasing women’s participation, and improving community reporting mechanisms. Her initiatives have made learning spaces for adolescent girls in displacement settings safer and more accessible.
As a trained lawyer and rights advocate, Bappy integrates legal awareness and safeguarding into disaster programming—ensuring protection and voice for those most at risk. She defends the rights of displaced and disaster-affected populations and promotes accountability in humanitarian interventions.
Swastika Devi, Fiji
Swastika Devi currently serves as project officer in the Early Warning System for Floods team under the Hydrological and Water Resources Services Section of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). In her regional role, she contributes to strengthening regional flood early warning capacities and supporting Pacific Island meteorological and hydrological services in building resilience to hydrometeorological hazards.
Prior to taking up her current role, Devi served as a Senior Scientific Officer at the Fiji Meteorological and Hydrological Service where she contributed to reducing disaster risk by providing timely and accurate flood forecasts and early warnings.
Devi worked closely with hydrologists, meteorologists, stakeholders and communities across Fiji to ensure that people receive the information they need to make informed decisions before and during floods. By helping to strengthen the national flood early warning system, she played a key role in protecting vulnerable populations and advancing Fiji’s climate and disaster resilience goals.
Devi applies her technical expertise to enhance flood risk understanding, strengthen monitoring and forecasting, and improve communication and messaging. She has also played a pivotal role in implementing and improving the Flash Flood Guidance System in Fiji, significantly contributing to early warnings and preparedness during flash floods.
Devi also raises awareness of the importance and challenges of flood early warning systems through her participation in regional and global forums, including the Pacific Regional Hydrological Services Forum, Pacific Islands Hydrological Services Panel and the Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States.
Devi is a strong advocate for increasing the opportunities for women in technical fields in Pacific Island Countries. In 2023, she spoke about gender-inclusive capacity development to the Hydrological Assembly during the WMO Congress in Geneva. She not only acts as a role model, she also supports other women to break the stereotypes that women cannot work in the field of hydrological services and early warnings. She believes there is no job women cannot do, and hydrology is no exception. Like many women working in male-dominated fields, she has made significant personal sacrifices to develop her technical expertise, including recently undertaking a Master’s study at IHE Delft in the Netherlands, which required spending more than one year away from her family.
Xie Hu, China
Dr. Hu leverages advanced remote sensing, geodetic tools, and modeling techniques to better map, monitor, and mitigate the impacts of natural hazards such as landslides, land subsidence, permafrost degradation, earthquake damage, and floods. Her innovations include hybrid Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), pixel offset tracking, and time-series analyses that enable precise monitoring of ground deformation and land cover changes.
Dr. Hu integrates artificial intelligence and geophysical modeling—such as non-Newtonian flow models—to disentangle hazard triggers and simulate disaster scenarios. Her research enables earlier warnings, more accurate risk assessments, and targeted mitigation strategies that directly support local and national disaster preparedness planning. She has been selected for American Geophysical Union Natural Hazards Early Career Award, NASA Early Career in Earth Sciences, and Beijing Emergency Response and Management Early Career Leadership.
Dr. Hu’s work has delivered impact when it mattered most. In response to the catastrophic Haihe River floods in 2023 encompassing northern China, Hu led efforts to analyze satellite radar imagery to timely track floodwater dynamics, informing the 2023 flood risk assessment and mitigation strategies complied by China’s Academy of Disaster Reduction and Emergency Management supported by the Ministry of Emergency Management and the Ministry of Education, and later refined and published as an article in Water Resources Research. Additionally, she co-authored a landmark national study on urban land subsidence in China’s megacities. This work, published in Science, was recognized as one of the Top Ten Scientific and Technological Advances in China’s Ecological Environment in 2024 and widely cited in global media.
Just 15 days after the 2023 earthquake near the border of Türkiye and Syria, an international collaborative team including Dr. Hu provided a rapid, large-scale building damage assessment hosted on Turkish earthquake information platform (funded by AFET PLATFORMU and Turkish Philanthropy Funds), supporting local authorities in rescue and recovery operations. This research was later refined and published as a cover article in npj Natural Hazards and recognized in Earthquake Spectra as an Editor’s Choice and cover image.
Dr. Hu leads her Natural Hazards Remote Sensing Lab, originally established at the University of Houston when she was working as a tenure-track assistant professor, and later moved to Peking University. During her academic career, she has led national level grants and led research projects with aerospace agencies of Japan, Germany and Spain.
As a first-generation college graduate and female scientist, Dr. Hu is a strong advocate for gender equality in disaster risk governance and education. She has been mentoring women in STEM, with most of her graduate students being female. Through her interdisciplinary research, Dr. Hu is driving real-world impact—empowering governments and communities to reduce disaster risks, enhance resilience, and protect lives and critical infrastructures.
Nashin Mahtani, Indonesia
Nashin Mahtani is the Director of Yayasan Peta Bencana (Disaster Map Foundation). As a climate activist and architect, she has led a multi-disciplinary team in building and maintaining one of the largest open source softwares for community-led DRR, currently used by over 200 million people in the Global South.
For the past eight years, her work has moved DRR beyond top-down warnings to a model of participatory risk governance, where communities are not just recipients of real-time risk information but active co-creators of warning systems. She has led the development and regional expansion of award-winning real-time disaster mapping platforms in Indonesia since 2017 and in the Philippines since 2020 that have enabled residents to co-create and share verified risk information with first responders, government agencies, and one another—fostering collective action before, during, and after disasters.
These platforms have been officially adopted by national and local governments, who credit them as the fastest source of verified information they have, and are used by over 900 humanitarian organizations to support rapid response. The platforms have allowed faster evacuations and response, reduced the loss of lives and damage to property, and allowed for the more effective mobilization of resources. Mahtani led the development of a groundbreaking peer-to-peer logistics feature that allows communities to share and request resources, such as clean water, food, and shelter during and after disasters; strengthening localized, mutual aid networks in times when formal aid is delayed or overstretched.
Her impact extends globally: the platform’s data has been used by Google, Uber and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Having led and demonstrated a successful localization strategy of the software for the Philippines, Mahtani is now leading regional deployments of the platform in other disaster-prone regions such as Vietnam, India, Pakistan, and Panama, ensuring that the digital infrastructure adapts to local contexts while fostering cross-border knowledge exchange.
Mahtani’s work exemplifies how inclusive technologies can challenge extractive systems and reimagine disaster resilience as a shared civic practice, not just a technical outcome. She has reimagined DRR as a collective, community-led process, bridging cutting-edge technology with deep cultural practices of mutual aid. Under her leadership, a project that began as a pilot flood map for a few thousand users in Jakarta has scaled into one of the largest open-source platforms for DRR in Southeast Asia.
Mai Nguyen, Viet Nam
As the technical lead for the International Finance Corporation’s Building Resilience Index in Vietnam, Nguyen has been at the forefront of introducing and embedding the concept of climate and disaster resilience in the country’s built environment and industrial sectors. The Building Resilience Index – the first tool of its kind – provides standardized resilience assessments of resilience. It was launched in Vietnam with Nguyen contributing to its introduction, filling a gap where such assessments had not existed before. To date, nearly 1.5 million square meters of built assets have been evaluated using the Index, translating into an estimated Probable Maximum Loss Reduction of USD 150 million, with the number continuously growing.
Many of the buildings assessed are located in Vietnam’s most climate-vulnerable regions, exposed to tropical storms, sea-level rise, flash floods, and landslides. Nguyen and her team have worked closely with local consulting firms to develop and integrate Vietnam’s hazard map into the Index, which is now freely available and widely used across the country.
In her role as Vietnam representative of the American Planning Association (APA), International Division, Nguyen has facilitated dialogue and partnerships between planners and the private sector in the US and Vietnam. Through her network, she has helped connect technology providers, real estate developers, and industrial stakeholders across both countries—promoting the importance of resilient infrastructure. As a result, Vietnam’s top industrial developers have begun conducting resilience assessments for their portfolios, enhancing disaster preparedness and long-term sustainability.
Nguyen also collaborates with the Ministry of Construction of Vietnam on national initiatives, including their flagship program to build resilient coastal cities—a priority because Vietnam is among the countries globally most affected by climate change.
She is also a passionate educator and has trained dozens of engineers and architects across Vietnam, providing them with the tools and knowledge to design and build for resilience. Nguyen also contributes expert insights to leading Vietnamese media outlets such as Vietnam Investment Review, where her articles have ranked among the most read. Through these platforms, she supports Vietnamese businesses in leveraging resilience as a competitive advantage to attract investment and access new financing opportunities. As a female engineer working in a male-dominated field, Nguyen has been a strong advocate for gender equality in DRR. She mentors young women in engineering and urban planning from various parts of the world, helping them build confidence and meaningful career pathways in resilience-focused professions.
Sana Parveen, Pakistan
Sana Parveen has made impactful contributions to DRR in Pakistan’s flood-affected Sindh through a community-driven and gender inclusive approach. Her work integrates disaster risk sensitivity into infrastructure, livelihood, and recovery programmes, centering women, marginalized populations, and other vulnerable communities.
In her role as Social Safeguard & Resettlement Specialist and additional charge for Livelihood Specialist under the World Bank-funded Sindh Flood Emergency Rehabilitation Project, Parveen ensured that environmental and social safeguards were embedded in project design, bidding and contracts. This made DRR and gender inclusion enforceable requirements in the rehabilitation of roads, water supply and drainage schemes.
Parveen, with support of PIU and World Bank teams, has designed and led inclusive Cash for Work schemes, supporting 139,000 individuals affected by floods, including the most vulnerable. She pioneered a transparent payment system with mobile wallets, ensuring secure, rapid, and traceable digital payments for participants of the Cash for Work programme. This innovation minimized leakages and fostered trust among donors, communities, and stakeholders.
Parveen established Pakistan's first Gender Desk at Rescue 1122’s Command and Control Center – a specialized unit for handling gender-based violence, sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment and child abuse – providing a safe and confidential space for victims to report incidents, with trained personnel who can provide appropriate referral services.
Parveen led initiatives such as kitchen gardening skill development – initiatives that were scaled up by the Government of Sindh through the Annual Development Programme to improve food security and income generation – essentially strengthening resilience in rural communities.
Beyond her professional work, Parveen is also a passionate writer whose articles spotlight gender equality, climate change, water governance, and women’s inclusion in economic opportunities and decision-making processes. Her writings have contributed to raising awareness and inspiring action on these intersecting issues at both community and institutional levels.
Facing early marriage and limited educational opportunities, Parveen overcame personal challenges to pursue education and a career dedicated to empowering women and marginalized groups. To her, leadership is also about staying rooted in the realities communities face. Her experiences fuel her commitment to creating opportunities for those facing similar struggles.
Maria Thessa Ramos, Philippines
Maria Thessa Ramos sees nature not just as something to be conserved, but as central to human survival—a belief that drives her work in DRR and climate resilience.
In the Philippines’ Southern Leyte, Ramos led a community-driven effort to restore 34 hectares of mangrove and beach forest ecosystems. She convened the Coalition for Community Resilience, an initiative with fisherfolk, gleaners, CSOs, businesses, schools and universities, creating alternative income opportunities that strengthen socio-economic resilience while protecting coastlines and promoting finance mobilization and accountability for social impact. Its flagship project, the Maasin Coastal Greenbelt Initiative, focuses on restoring mangrove and native beach forest ecosystems along the municipal coastline.
She also co-founded Eastern Visayas Society of Native Tree Conservation Inc, which is now a community with some 4,000 members. The group has collectively established a chain of food forests in the region, over 20 school arboreta and five member-run nurseries of native trees, and has helped the local government in mainstreaming biodiversity in their local plans.
As co-founder of the Youth for Community Resilience, Ramos has empowered more than 7,000 young people in her province and over 10,000 across the Philippines through workshops on climate data interpretation, community risk mapping, ecosystem-based adaptation and participatory resilience planning. Many of these young leaders now spearhead or support DRR initiatives in their own schools and barangays.
In her role as a Climate Information Specialist, she has helped train over 500 farmers and fisherfolk to apply climate forecasts for anticipatory action—improving harvest planning, reducing crop loss, and strengthening their ability to cope with weather extremes.
Through Art Relief Kitchen Eastern Visayas, Thessa also co-convenes women-led disaster response initiatives, providing freshly cooked, nutritious meals to evacuees during typhoons and landslides—affirming that food is not only sustenance, but also dignity and healing in times of crisis. She is advocating for policies to mainstream nutrient-rich meals instead of unhealthy canned goods during disaster relief operations.
Ramos was named the Philippine Resilience Awardee 2024, a DENR Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Action Champion, a KLIMAKALIKASAN Gender Equality and Women Empowerment Awardee, and a recipient of the WedU Women Collective Impact Award.
Background
The WIN DRR Leadership Awards recognize women's achievements in DRR across the Asia-Pacific region. The awards are part of UNDRR's flagship women's leadership initiative, the Women's International Network for Disaster Risk Reduction (WIN DRR), supported by the Government of Australia. There are two award categories, the Excellence Award, proudly sponsored by SM Prime, and the Rising Star Award. The Rising Star Award of US$7,500 will be granted to an individual woman who has demonstrated potential early in her career. The winners in both categories will be announced at a ceremony on 25 November 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand during the ESCAP Disaster Resilient Week / Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction. Find out more about the awards ceremony: https://www.undrr.org/event/womens-international-network-disaster-risk-reduction-win-drr-leadership-awards-2025-ceremony
WIN DRR is a professional network. It promotes and supports women's leadership in DRR across the Asia-Pacific region and aims to reduce the barriers faced by women and empower them to attain leadership and enhance their decision-making in DRR and resilience building. WIN DRR is supported by UNDRR and the Government of Australia.
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