Riya Sethia is an Urban Planner, Development Professional, and Architect with over 7 years of experience in policy & strategy making, program development, action plans & SOPs/Frameworks, systems thinking (governance-finance-implementation), evidence-based research/advocacy, stakeholder engagement and community-focused initiatives.

A Gold Medalist in M.Plan (Urban Planning) from National Institute of Technology, Calicut, her award-winning thesis on “Balancing Economy, Sustainability and Climate Resilience in Coastal Tourism Destinations” is published in Urban Science and Engineering Book by Springer and received "Best Poster Award" in ICUSE 2020 Conference by IIT Bombay.

Riya has led projects like Climate Smart Gram Panchayat Plans, Ayodhya Climate Action Plan, SOP/Frameworks, Climate Resilience & DRR Toolkits and Guidelines with NITI Aayog, Directorate of Environment, Uttar Pradesh, etc. She has co-authored policy briefs on "Climate Adaptation and Resilience Budgeting" and "Policy, Technology & Financial Needs for India to reach Net-Zero". With Directorate of Town & Country Planning, Andhra Pradesh, she led work on GIS-based Master Planning.

Selected as Country Lead: India for APFSD Youth Forum 2023 (Bangkok) and as Young Planning Professional at ISOCARP YPP Workshop 2022 (Turkey), Riya is driven by her passion to create an inclusive, resilient, sustainable, and equitable world for all.