Hopes dim for Woodland couple missing in Nepal flooding

Family members continue to hold out hope for a Woodland couple who remain among the missing in Nepal after catastrophic flooding caused by a glacier collapse.

Hanumantha Rao Unnava and Vasundhara Unnava are among hundreds reported missing as a result of the flash floods along the Nepal-China border on Aug. 26.

Rao had retired from UC Davis in July 2025, where he served as dean of the Graduate School of Management. Vasundhara is a former lecturer at the university.

The couple are Woodland residents and had embarked on a retirement trip that was to include a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, followed by two months in India with family. Rao is 66 years old.

At least 1,287 people were killed in the Aug. 26 floods, likely caused by a glacier collapse, and more than 5,000 remain missing, according to the country’s disaster management agency. China said late Wednesday that 21 people were killed and 541 were missing on the Tibet side of the border.

Nepal’s disaster agency estimated Friday that flooding caused at least $2.5 billion in damage to infrastructure and property.

Thursday, UC Davis Chancellor and Provost Gary May and Mary Croughan issued a statement on behalf of the university directed to family and friends of the Unnavas, who were called “two beloved members of the UC Davis community.”

“We understand they were staying in a hotel in Timure, Nepal, a few kilometers from the border of Nepal and Tibet, when the flash floods occurred on August 26,” the statement reads in part. “They have not been located or heard from since then.

“They have touched countless through their work at the Graduate School of Management and throughout their careers in higher education,” the statement continues. “We are grateful to both Rao and Vasu for their contributions that extend far beyond GSM and UC Davis.”

The Unnavas’ children and extended family are reportedly “pursuing every available avenue to obtain information and requested assistance from U.S. government agencies.

“We continue to hope Rao and Vasu will be found safe and sound. Again, please keep them, their children, and extended family in your thoughts and prayers.”

A group called Indian-American Community News reported the Unnavas were staying at Hotel Kailash in Timure, near the Rasuwagadhi border crossing between Nepal and Tibet. They were traveling with a tour group organized by Himalayan Glacier.

“Their daughter, Vaasavi Unnava, believed her parents had already crossed the border into Tibet when news of the devastating floods emerged,” the publication reported. “She tried reaching them on WhatsApp, expecting the familiar reassurance of a message from her parents. The messages never delivered.”

The publication also reported the couple’s names now appear on an official Nepal Police registry of 65 U.S. citizens reported missing in the disaster.

Both the Unnavas are former Ohio State faculty members who had built long careers at Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business, according to a site titled “All Things Ohio.”

“Rao Unnava earned his doctorate there and spent 32 years at the school as a marketing professor and senior associate dean before becoming dean of the graduate business school at UC Davis,” the publication reported. Vasu Unnava also earned her Ph.D at Fisher and went on to lecture in marketing at UC Davis.”

In a story on Rao’s retirement written by Cindy Brown in July 2025 for UC Davis, he was called a “trailblazer in academia and entrepreneurship.”

“It is thanks to Dean Unnava’s creativity, enthusiasm, and visionary leadership that UC Davis continues to be recognized as one of the most innovative business schools in the country,” said Mary Croughan, provost and executive vice chancellor. “His focus on increasing access to academic programs and elevating the student experience has boosted enrollment, and his collaborative spirit has been such a benefit to UC Davis. I am very grateful that the campus will continue to benefit from Dean Unnava’s ideas, experience, and passion as an esteemed member of our faculty.”

In 2024, Rao was named Dean of the Year by Poets & Quants, an industry publication focused on business education.

“This prestigious award recognized his innovative programming, including expanding opportunities for experiential learning that built skills on the business side of some of UC Davis’s greatest strengths: agriculture, biotechnology, and sustainable energy, among others,” according to Brown’s story. “This year, Poets&Quants named the UC Davis Graduate School of Management among the top 10 business schools to watch in the U.S.

Among Rao’s initiatives, Brown reported, were launching the first online MBA and part-time Master of Management programs in the University of California system, offering credit-bearing stackable credentials that could be applied toward a degree program, deferring tuition for online MBA candidates, creating a lifelong learning platform for the GSM community, and opening all MBA content to alumni for free.

“Under Unnava’s leadership, the Graduate School of Management partnered with UC Davis Athletics to provide student-athletes with a way to continue competing in sports while earning a master’s degree,” Brown wrote. “The collaboration led to an accelerated one-year Master of Management program, and dozens of student-athletes have earned the degree and entered their careers with a solid foundation in business, including accounting, finance, economics, and marketing.”

Following his departure, Rao planned to return to UCD to teach advertising and marketing as a professor in the Graduate School of Management in 2027.

Rao earned a bachelor of science degree in electronics engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in Hyderabad, India, a master of business administration degree from the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta, and a doctorate in business administration from the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University.