Vishakha N. Desai

Vishakha Desai joined Columbia as Senior Advisor for Global Affairs to the President and senior Research Scholar at SIPA and a member of the Committee on Global Thought in 2013. Prior to that she was at the Asia Society, first as the director of its museum and as the Vice President of Arts and  Culture programs. She served as the President and CEO of the organization from 2004 to 2012. Under her leadership, the Asia Society became a leader in presenting groundbreaking exhibitions of contemporary Asian and Asian American arts and commissioning innovative performing arts programs which traveled nationally and internationally. During her tenure as President, Dr. Desai was responsible for expanding the Society’s foot print to India and Korea, and inaugurating two new facilities designed by renowned architects in Hong Kong and Houston she also established a center on US-China Relations and a transnational program for young leaders in Asia and the US. 

In recognition of her leadership in the museum world, President Obama appointed her to the board of the Institute for Libraries and Museums. Dr Desai received her BA in Political Science from Bombay University and her MA and Ph.D in Art History from University of Michigan. Recipient of five honorary degrees, Vishakha Desai is author of numerous exhibition catalogs and editor of a major anthology on Asian Arts in the 21st Century. Her most recent publication is an award winning memoir, “World as Family: a Journey of  Multi-Rooted Belongings,” Published by Columbia University Press. She is currently at work on an anthology with a focus on intersection of socio-political issues and visual arts in a current global context, also to be published by Columbia University Press.