Janet Pillai served as an associate professor at the Department of Performing Arts in University Sains Malaysia (until 2013) and currently works as an independent consultant specialising in arts education and community mapping.  Pillai specialises in programming of community-engaged arts projects and conducts capacity-building training for cultural workers and artists. Pillai has researched and published widely on community-based arts in the Asian region and has authored 5 books related to arts, culture and heritage education. Pillai also contributes as an expert resource person to regional institutions such as UNESCO Bangkok and APCIEU Korea and Hong Kong University.