Sowmya M is a Chennai-based Program Associate for the STAMP initiative with the Sustainable Cities and Transport program at WRI India. Her work involves assessing the accessibility of various public transport system.

Prior to joining WRI India, she worked with ITDP India Programme for over a year. Between major employment terms, she has worked with organizations such as Urban Catalysts, The Gender Lab, and UNICITI on various short-term engagements.

Sowmya has experience working on various urban development and transport systems projects such as developing NMT Master Plan for Tier-2 cities in Tamil Nadu and assessing accessibility to public transportation in Chennai. She holds a master’s in city planning from IIT, Kharagpur and has a year’s experience as an architect after graduating from the School of Architecture and Planning, Chennai.

After work, Sowmya loves exploring topics such as space syntax, economics, climate resilience, programming languages and software to understand the city network. Her passion for cycling keeps her motivated in converting car-friendly cities to cycle-friendly cities. Her day off from work is packed with yoga sessions, dance groves, binge-watching movies and reading books.