Associate Professor Chand is an internationally awarded educator, journalist, trainer and collaborator with over 40 years of combined experience in international leadership, academia, journalism, news/newsroom and media management. She leverages the power of journalism, education, communication and media to foster an informed society while nurturing students who go on to make significant contributions towards creating a better world through their work. 

Her global leadership in promoting transformative education and collaboration with industry and university partners has resulted in several successful projects. In 2024 she was awarded $459,339 from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to tackle critical development challenges in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Dr Chand established a global network and mentored 12 academic fellows from Western Sydney University’s (WSU) partner institutions across India, Indonesia, and Fiji focusing on ethical, responsible journalism and digital media storytelling to improve grassroots livelihoods.

On July 23, 2025, she was recognised for keeping India's flag high overseas, at the Library of Congress, Washington DC, USA with a gold medal and prize. On January 25, 2023, she received the Nav Rattan (nine jewels) of India, in Delhi, on the eve of India's republic day and was among nine people from a diaspora of several million Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) across the globe to receive this honour for her work in journalism, media and teaching.
Dr Chand was similarly recognised for her journalism and research at the House of Commons in London in October, 2018 with the Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Samman award, followed by the 2019 Hind Rattan (Jewel of India) in Delhi.
She has won two Australian national awards for excellence in tertiary teaching and a Vice Chancellor’s excellence in teaching award for her role in developing hybrid online courses at WSU. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK, (2020) a Fellow of Badugulang, a WSU Centre for Excellence in University Teaching and Learning.

Her research work has been published as book chapters and in international and national journals. Her PhD research titled Migration, Matchmaking and the Media: Fiji Indians in Sydney addresses global challenges of migration and political discourse, specifically relating to marginalised communities. Her research can be found here: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2989-2105

Dr Chand's foray into the international education landscape began in 2016 through the New Colombo Plan (Australian govt) funding. She took a group of students to Nepal on a study tour to report on the aftermath of the 2015 earthquakes. She led a similar study tour to Fiji in 2017 and one to West Bengal, India, in 2018.
In November 2025 she led a similar tour for two weeks of immersion at Bennett University in Delhi and Chitkara University in Punjab. Her students published and broadcast their works in local, national and international media. This included writing breaking news stories and being published on the front page of The Australian