Geeta Mehta

Geeta Mehta is an Indian-American social entrepreneur, urban designer, architect and author. She is the co-founder of Asia Initiatives, and URBZ, and an adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation at Columbia University.

Early life and education Mehta was born in Simla, India. She earned her bachelor's degree in architecture from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, a master's degree in architecture and urban design from Columbia University, and a doctorate in urban engineering from the University of Tokyo. Until 2009, Mehta was a professor of architecture at Temple University campus in Tokyo.

She founded with business partner Jill Braden the interior design firm Braden & Mehta Design in Honolulu and New York City. The blend of Western and Asian influences appear in the firm's work throughout U.S., Vietnam, and India as well for various corporations and private homes.

Mehta appeared in Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, a documentary film about activist Jane Jacobs directed by Matt Tyrnauer. Mehta, in the film, warned that global development, without the philosophies of Jacobs, could result in "the slums of the future".

She was appointed in 2018 by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to the Waterfront Management advisory board.

She has spoken on social capital, sustainable and equitable urbanism, and community-based change at forums in Australia, Austria, Brazil, India, Japan, UAE and the US, including the Public Ideas Form in Perth, Australia, and the Post City event at ARS Electronica in Linz, Austria. She also was a panelist at WomenDeliver in Copenhagen, Denmark and the Women's Summit in Sharjah organized by UN Women.

She is on the board of WomenStrong International, The Center for the Living City, and Friends of University of Tokyo. She previously was on the advisory board of the Millennium Cities Initiative of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and People Building Better Cities.

Asia Initiatives

Inspired by M. S. Swaminathan, a scientist and humanist, Geeta and Krishen Mehta co-founded Asia Initiatives As advised by Prof. Swaminathan, all Asia Initiatives projects are pro-poor, pro-environment and pro-women. These include projects in education, up-skilling, nature based agriculture, climate resilience, healthcare and micro credit in underserved areas with NGO and/or government partners in India, Kenya, Taiwan and the United States.

The M.S. Swaminathan Award, instituted in 2014, was presented at the Asia Initiatives Annual Galas to the economist Jeffrey Sachs (2014), Indra Nooyi for steering PepsiCo towards Performance with Purpose (2015),Kerry Kennedy for her work on human rights (2016), and Dr. Mattoo for his commitment to educational causes (2016).

The 8th Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, is a patron of Asia Initiatives. In his honor, Asia initiatives instituted the Ban Ki-moon Award for Women's Empowerment in 2017. The recipients of the award have included Jane Goodall, Paul Polman, Gloria Steinem, Yue Sai Kan, Pat Mitchell, Ricky Kej, Eva Haller, Chelsea Clinton, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Mitzi Perdue, Dr. Susan Blaustein, Kathy Matsui, Cecile Richards, Madhura Swaminathan and Lee Bae-yong.

SoCCs (Social Capital Credits) Mehta is the innovator of Social Capital Credits (SoCCs), a community currency for social good to help communities climb out of poverty. and Huffington Post which describe the creation and use of SoCCs in greater detail. Asia Initiatives was among the six winners of the Amravati Happy Cities competition in April 2018, and had signed an MoU with the government of Andhra Pradesh to implement SoCCs in this new city.

In 2019, SoCCs received Fast Company's 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards, MIT Inclusive Innovation Award in 2019 for the Asia Region category. In 2020, Asia Initiatives received awards from MIT SOLVE, General Motors, Vodafone and Experian. In 2021, Asia Initiative received the Jacobs Foundation Conference Grand Innovation prize.

URBZ With urban planner Matias Echanove and urban anthropologist Rahul Srivastava,