Subarna Sivapalan joined the University of Nottingham as Head of School of Education and Associate Professor in May 2022. She now serves as Associate Dean of Research and Knowledge Exchange of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus. Prior to joining the University of Nottingham, she was attached to Malaysia’s top STEM focused private university where she taught ESP, sustainability and research methodology modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She also held key roles in academic and research divisions, with the most reason being the Director of the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. Subarna also founded the institution’s first scholarship of teaching and learning research cluster, and its first education and social sustainability focused research centre. Apart from pioneering the advocacy of the SDGs amongst students and staff on campus, she also established and advised the institution’s first student led eco campus workgroup that went on to achieve a bronze award under WWF Malaysia’s Foundation for Environmental Education Eco-Campus programme.

At the national level, Subarna is actively involved in sustainability education advocacy. She sat on the National Committee of WWF Malaysia’s Eco-Schools Programme, and was also Chair of the Eco-Campus Programme. At the international level, Subarna is an Acumen Fellow, the world’s school for social change. She is a United Nations University Pro.SPER.Net Leadership “Building Transformational Leadership Towards The SDGs” fellow and has been actively involved in UNESCO’s Greening Education Partnership initiative, particularly the Greening Community pillar and the Higher Education working group. Subarna is the Malaysia project lead for the UNESCO ESD Action Research Global Project.