Mr. Rabindra Chandra Behera, the present executive director of ISWAR is a social worker by choice. He is having rich experience of 30 years in development sector. After completion of his Masters in Commerce, he organized a team of local youth to form an association to provide services to resource poor families of his area.  He is amongst well-known resource persons in the state having in-depth knowledge on MGNREGS, Social Audit and Right to Information Act and is also an empaneled trainer on formation and capacity building of ‘Community Water User’s Committee’, ‘Village Development Committee’, ‘Jan Arogya Samiti’ at various level. He is a member of District Level and Monitoring Committee on ‘Protection of Civil Rights (PCR) Act’ and ‘Prevention of Atrocities (PoA) Act’. He happens to be one of the founding members of ISWAR.

Padma Shri Daitari Naik, is a tribal from a remote village of Keonjhar district of Odisha. Naik and members of his community are tribal forest dwellers. During his youth the community was dependant on rainfed agriculture as their prime livelihood. Due to lack of irrigation facility, every odd year there was crop loss leading to affect their life and livelihood. To combat this situation Padma Shri Naik started organising his community and ran from pillar to post to get some government support to excavate a canal from the nearby stream. But nobody listened to his plight. With self-determination and clear vision he took the challenge on to himself and dedicated his entire life for the cause of carving out a three-kilometre-long canal from the Gonasika mountains which supports about 100 acres of land of 50 resource poor tribal families to ensure their food security. In the year 2019, he was conferred with the fourth highest civilian honour of India -Padma Shri for his unwavering will power towards the betterment of his community. ISWAR is proud to have a persistent and perceptive person as a member of its executive board.

Dr. R. Divakar, a qualified professional social worker has completed his Masters  in Agricultural Science and Ph.D. in Rural Development. He had started his professional career as an Agriculture Development Officer in Syndicate Bank, and subsequently deputed to UNDP for a project on Institutional development of grassroots for poverty alleviation, presently popularized as the ‘SHG revolution’. He had a varied experience in the development sector starting from being a faculty in Centurion University on Agri Business, a guest faculty for NIRD, MANAGE, Centre for Agrian Studies and Ministry of Panchayati Raj. He has a working experience as Vice President- SKS Micro Finance Ltd, ACCESS Dev Services and World Bank funded AP Rural Inclusive Growth Project, AP Community Lift Irrigation Scheme and Andaman and Nagaland Women Empowerment Program. He had also led the Livelihoods division at Naandi Foundation heading Araku Coffee Project. He was in an instrumental role as specialist of Micro Finance and Rural Livelihoods in Andhra Pradesh Tribal Livelihoods Project (APTLP) funded by European Union. He had also served SIDBI and World Vision India as a Consultant.  He had also headed the Syndicate Bank promoted Farmer’s Cooperative; “Syndicate Farmers and Artisans Mutually Aided Cooperative Society” for 6 years, as the Managing Director which can be termed as the ‘first generation of farmers’ producer organization (FPO). ISWAR feels it as an opportunity to get him as a member of the executive board.

Bibhu P. Nayak is an Associate Professor at School of Livelihoods and Development, Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), Hyderabad Campus. He is an economist by training and has been working on environmental and resource governance issues. Prior to TISS, he worked for The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi and Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru in India. He has worked on several research and consultancy projects funded by various national and international agencies. His research interest includes economics of conservation, community-based institutions, social capital and collective action, participatory natural resource management and rural livelihood systems. He has worked on research projects with inter-disciplinary focus and travelled extensively across different states in India for field research and published many research papers. He is the recipient for Global Development Network (GDN) Medal for Research on Development in 2013.He has been associated with professional associations like Indian Society of Ecological Economics (INSEE), Orissa Economic Association (OEA) and several academic networks like South Asia Network for Environment and Development (SANDEE); Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (LCSR); Research Committee on Behavioral Insights, Green Growth Knowledge Platform; Ronald Coase Institute Alumni Network, among others.

Smt. Sarojini Mishra is one among the few examples of women and farmer empowerment in the country. At an early age  of 27 , burden of her family came naturally to her which made her resilient and active to take up the social responsibility which not only forced her to understand the environment and dynamics of milk market but also but also motivated her to take the leadership to streamline the milk problem of her area.  She led the  first all Women Milk Cooperative in the state of Odisha and became one of the founder members of Odisha Milk Federation (OMFED).  Her dedication and selfless leadership prompted her to be the first Farmer Chairperson of OMFED from 2015 to 20201 (Odisha Milk Federation), the state level apex body of dairy cooperatives. She had also served National Cooperative Dairy Federation of India (NCDFI) as one of its board of directors representing eastern India. She has received National Diary Entrepreneur Award in 2013 by Govt of India. She is also one of the pioneers of SHG Movement in Odisha. ISWAR feels  proud to have her as a member in the Executive Board.

Dr. Md. Khalid Khan, an academician in profession has completed his post-graduation in Agriculture Engineering from OUAT followed by Ph.D. from IIT, Kharagpur. He has devoted his entire life towards spreading knowledge on Agriculture. He served as a professor at Odisha University of Agriculture Technology (OUAT) and finally retired as the dean of College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology. He is still active in academics even post retirement. He is passionate about research, development and promotion of low-cost farm machinery. He is presently busy in spreading his   knowledge among the students by serving as visiting faculty at many pioneer engineering colleges of Odisha. His advice and guidance are  morale boosts for the entire ISWAR team. ISWAR is fortunate enough to have such an eminent agriculture scientist in its executive board. His vast knowledge and experience in the agriculture and farm mechanization sector is a great support for ISWAR during conceptualization and implementation agriculture and allied programs.

Dr. Bidyadhar Sahoo, a veterinarian by qualification, an administrator and a dairy expert by profession has completed his BVSC from OUAT. After graduating he had joined OMFED (Odisha Milk Federation) as a veterinarian and subsequently served the organization at managerial capacity till he retired as general manager from OMFED. During his long-term association with the state milk cooperative, he has acquired an incredible experience in  farmers organization and milk market in rural and urban Odisha. He has a pan Odisha exposure in the sector of animal husbandry and dairying. His experience and expertise in the field of farmers’ cooperative sector and animal husbandry will be of great support for ISWAR to undertake and implement livelihood projects related to livestock management.