PROF. DR. TABASSAM RAZA is the Executive Director and Member of the Board of Trustees, Planning and Development Research Foundation, Inc. Prof. Dr. Raza is a licensed Professional Civil Engineer, Geologist, and Environmental Planner. He is a Professorial Lecturer II of School of Urban and Regional Planning (SURP), University of the Philippines, Diliman (UP-D). Prof. Dr. Raza is a Permanent Special Technical Advisor of Quezon City Government, Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (QCDRRMO), Philippines. Further, he is a Technical Adviser – Office of Civil Defense (OCD)-NCR, Philippines: For the Regional DRRM Plan formulation Activities & Metro Manila Development Plan. Prof. Dr. Raza is also extending his services to the Department of City and Regional Planning, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan under the category of a visiting Professor. Further, he is presently a Consultant of Asian Development Bank (ADB), a mission to the National Government of Tajikistan.

Prof. Dr. Raza has multidisciplinary academic and professional Expertise i.e., Risk Sensitive Urban Land Use and Sustainable Development Planning; Climate Change (CC) Adaptation and Financing (Ph.D. and MA in Urban and Regional Planning, UP-D, Philippines); Disaster Economics and Allied Knowledge Management in Developing and Capacitating Institutional setup and Policy Design (Doctor in Business Administration DBA, PSBA, Manila, Philippines and Master in Business Administration MBA, Graduate School, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Markina, Markina City, Philippines); Knowledge Support Procedure in Investigating Environmental Hazard Prone Areas (MS Geology, UP-D, Philippines); and  Application of  Technical Knowledge in Analyzing and Mitigating Hazard Prone Areas (M.Sc. and B.Sc. Applied Geology, University of the Punjab, Pakistan),  and Civil Engineering (BSCE, UP-D, Philippines). Prof. Dr. Raza is a scientific expert and knowledge broker. He upholds the vision to apply science to improve the quality of life as a global public good. He has shared his work openly and freely to all who wish to scrutinize it and to use it to further understanding.

Prof. Dr. Raza has a substantial number of local and international peer reviewed publications. He has also authored and co-authored books, reports, plans, procedures, and guidelines.  Further, he has more than 25 years of progressive experience working locally, regionally, and internationally as Senior Director, National and Local Governments Adviser, Executive Board Member, Dean,, Chief Executive Officer, DRM, and ICT Projects Expert, and Technical Director. In addition, he had worked for multilateral organizations such as ADB, WB, UNISDR, UNDP, DKKV-FFO Germany, JICA-Japan, EU-DIPECHO, and Curtin University Australia funded projects.

Prof. Dr. has replicated the application of his work done internationally to substantial number of vulnerable Countries/Provinces, Districts/ Cities,/Municipalities  in the South Asian and  Southeast Asian countries.