David Sanderson

• Professor and Inaugural Judith Neilson Chair in Architecture, UNSW

David has 35 years' experience working across the world in development and emergencies. Trained originally as an architect, he worked for eight years for the NGO CARE International UK as head of policy and then as Regional Manager for Southern and West Africa. In 2006 David became Director of the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP) at Oxford Brookes University and Professor in 2010. Between 2013-14 he was a full time Visiting Professor at Harvard University.

David has held board positions at CARE, Norwegian Refugee Council and the Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF), where he chaired the Grants Panel. He has led multi-NGO evaluations of disaster response in Nepal, India, Pakistan, Haiti and Philippines. David was co-editor of the 2016 IFRC World Disasters Report focusing on resilience.

He holds a doctorate in development and disasters, and as well as the UK, USA and Australia, David has held full and visiting professorships in Spain, France and Norway.

David became the Inaugural Judith Neilson Chair of Architecture at UNSW in 2016 following a global search, and led UNSW's Institute for Global Development 2021-22.

In 2023 David founded HowWeSurvive, a new long-term initiative aimed at reshaping disaster recovery by putting people's voices at the centre of decision making.

David's 2026 book 'Design for disaster recovery' is published by Routledge, New York.

• –present Professor, Judith Neilson Chair in Architecture, UNSW Australia

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