Director

Dr. Sanjeevani Ayachit is currently the Director at the Symbiosis Institute of Design and Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Design at Symbiosis International (Deemed University). She holds a PhD from SIU, a Master's degree in Clothing and Textiles from M. S. University of Baroda and 20 years of experience in the field of apparel design, design education and consultancy.

On completing her Masters' education, she took up employment at the prestigious men's apparel company Raymond Apparel Ltd. (RAL), Thane, where she oversaw their finishing and quality control department. After spending a few years at RAL, she took up a temporary teaching position at the S. N. D. T. College of Home Science, Pune. This was soon followed by a three-year period of teaching fashion design at a private institute. She has also worked as Manager – Quality Control at a Pune based apparel brand, Sleepins Apparel Pvt. Ltd.

Dr. Sanjeevani headed the departments of Fashion Design and Fashion Communication at SID for several years and has also served as Deputy Director. She has recently completed her PhD at Symbiosis International (Deemed University) examining cross-cultural subtleties of costumes of the Peshwas of Pune. Her research interests lie in the areas of heritage Indian textiles and costumes, fashion design process, design thinking and inclusive design. An avid reader and researcher, Sanjeevani has co-authored a book documenting the historic textiles and costumes in the collection of the Kelkar Museum in Pune, India. She has presented research papers at several conferences and published her research in reputed journals. She has been invited as a PhD thesis examiner by a university of repute in Rajasthan and is a Board of Studies member at a Bengaluru based university. She has also been a reviewer of research papers for Illinois based Common Ground Research Network, USA.