Kaoru Irisawa is a Disaster Risk Management Specialist with the City Resilience Program (CRP) at GFDRR, based in Washington, DC. With a background as both an architect and engineer, Kaoru brings over a decade of professional experience in architectural design, engineering, urban planning, and project management. Kaoru’s work is distinguished by a strong focus on sustainable urban recovery and development.
Prior to joining GFDRR, Kaoru served as Head of the Aleppo Sub Office for the UN-Habitat Syria Programme, where Kaoru led post-disaster recovery initiatives and informal settlement upgrading efforts. Kaoru also worked at the UN-Habitat Regional Office for Arab States (ROAS) in Egypt, spearheading environmental and social safeguards in projects across the region and supporting project development.
Before Kaoru’s tenure at the United Nations, Kaoru worked in the private sector as an engineer, specializing in green building design and engineering with environmental analysis, including projects certified under LEED standards.
Kaoru holds dual master’s degrees: a Master of Science from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and a Master of Engineering in Built Environment from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Tokyo.