Prof. Pranati Panda is a Professor and Head of the School Standards and Evaluation Unit. She has pursued her Ph.D. (Education) from Utkal University and M.Phil. (Education) from Delhi University and Certificate Course on Education Sector Diagnosis from IIEP, Paris. She has more than thirty years of teaching, research, training engagement in a number of premier national organizations in different research and faculty positions of National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCED), National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA). She has broad range of experiences from field level practices to national level policy formulations and implementations. She specializes in school education, school evaluation and leadership; teacher education, teacher management and development; peace and human rights education. She contributed and managed significant large-scale projects - Encyclopaedia of Indian Education, Fifty years of Teacher Education in India and Curriculum Planning and Development of School and Teacher Education. She is currently leading a National Programme on School Standards and Evaluation (Shaala Siddhi), a major initiative of Govt. of India, for institutionalisation of school performance evaluation in 1.53 million schools of India.

She is among the editorial members of International and National Journals. She is the member of several official committees on school and teacher education constituted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India, National Council for Teacher Education, Central and State Universities and in different national institutions for strategic policy formulation, planning and development. She severed as lead members of Joint Review Missions of Teacher and School Education, Govt. of India to review the Centrally Sponsored Schemes, plan and strategic implementations. She served as the Focal point for the Asian Network of Training and Research Institutions (ANTRIEP) for establishing international collaboration and networking and Course Director for International Diploma in Educational Planning and Administration. She is consulted by the UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, British Council, United Nation High Commissioner for Human Rights (Geneva), Asia Pacific Center of Education for International Understanding (UNESCO), GTZ (Germany), HURIGHTS (Japan) etc.