Biography
Sidra Riaz is a Presidential Fellow and PhD student in Public Affairs at Florida International University's Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs. Her research focuses on disaster resilience, housing vulnerability, first responder agencies, and gender equity, and she is advised by Dr. N. Emel Ganapati. Sidra contributes to National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) funded research, including work connected to the Champlain Towers Surfside (FL) Building Collapse Technical Investigation, where she has examined condominium and homeowners' association governance and regulatory change across multiple U.S. states.
Sidra is currently serving as a URAAN Summer Scholar at Pakistan's Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives in Islamabad, where she works on gender mainstreaming, climate finance, and disaster risk policy aligned with the country's national development priorities.
Before beginning her PhD, Sidra was a senior lecturer at the National University of Modern Languages in Islamabad, where she spent four years teaching courses in public administration, public policy analysis, gender-inclusive development, and environmental governance. She has authored nine peer-reviewed publications. She graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. and holds an M.Phil. in Government and Public Policy from National Defence University.
Sidra is active in international climate and youth policy spaces. She has served as a UN Women Delegate at CSW70 and a UN Youth Delegate to UN Climate Change Conferences, including COP29 in Azerbaijan and COP30 in Brazil, and she sits on the UNFCCC YOUNGO Youth Policy Team. She co-authored the COP30 Global Youth Statement and the SB64 Policy Position Paper for the UNFCCC youth constituency.
She is the founder of Environmental Change Makers, a youth-led climate education organization, and has delivered more than 70 talks worldwide, including two TEDx talks and interventions at the United Nations General Assembly. Sidra was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi in 2026, which recognizes the top 10% of FIU's graduate class. Learn more at linktr.ee/sidra_riaz.