Dr Ora-Orn Poocharoen is the founding Director of the School of Public Policy at Chiang Mai University. She is former United Nation’s Committee of Experts for Public Administration.

Her current research interests are in public policy, public management, sustainable governance, wellbeing and the public sector. She has spearheaded numerous workshops on strategic foresight covering topics from higher education, traveling, innovation landscape, to Thailand's governance systems.

Her organization has developed and executed foresight training programs that blend critical approaches, complexity thinking, creativity, and design thinking to strategic foresight. She is a firm believer in the need to be future ready. Her work aims to influence policymakers and public officials to adopt new mindsets to be more open to new possibilities. She holds a PhD in Public Administration from the Maxwell School, Syracuse University.