Project Peds: Sri Lanka Tsunami Relief

Pratheepan (Deep) Gulasekaram, Esq. was born in Sri Lanka and grew up in Los Angeles, California. He attended Brown University and Stanford Law School, spending two years as a middle school teacher in between college and law school. After graduating from Stanford Law School, he served as law clerk to the Honorable Jacques L. Wiener, Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Prior to his current position at NYU, he practiced as a litigator at the national firms of O'Melveny & Myers LLP and Susman Godfrey LLP, and, most recently was Visiting Assistant Professor at Loyola University Law School in New Orleans where he taught Constitutional Law. Mr. Gulasekaram maintains a keen interest in international travel, foreign policy, and human rights, and has spent significant time working with orphaned children in Sri Lanka.

Dr. Kanishka Ratnayaka was born in Sri Lanka and grew up in Athens, Georgia. He attended Brown University and Emory University School of Medicine. After completing his Doctorate in Medicine from Emory, he completed his Pediatric Residency at Children's National Medical Center (CNMC) in Washington DC. Upon completion of his Pediatric training, he was asked to be one of the Pediatric Chief Residents at CNMC. He is now a Pediatric Cardiology Fellow at Children's with a specific focus in Interventional Pediatric Cardiology and Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care. Dr. Ratnayaka has experience and interest in working with children, healthcare institutions, and basic science research.

Chaminda Wijetilleke is an executive of America Online at its headquarters in Dulles, Va. He has been in a staff role for the Vice-Chairman, and the Chief Marketing Officer working on strategy issues related to product and programming projects, operational efficiencies and cross-divisional initiatives. Currently serves as a Director in the Chief Financial Officers office. He joined AOL in 1998 and has served in a variety of roles including project management, policy development, business development and marketing across AOL's divisions. Before joining AOL, Chaminda interned in the White House NAFTA War Room where he planned and implemented promotional activities on behalf of administration officials. He also worked as a research associate for the International Republican Institute and co-authored papers on rising populist trends in Sri Lanka and Nepal and on political history and democratic feasibility in Afghanistan. As a graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science, Chaminda focused on foreign economic policy with an emphasis on the Pacific Rim. He studied international relations at American University in Washington and graduated among the top of his class. Chaminda, a native of Florida who currently lives in the Washington DC area, has traveled extensively to Southeast Asia and was in the region when the tsunami struck in 2004. Following the catastrophe, he volunteered in rescue efforts. Chaminda has also served as associate producer for several documentaries about sharks.

Sanjay Daluvoy, MD is a general surgery resident at George Washington University in Washington, DC. He attended Brown University and Jefferson Medical College, spending 5 years working in the healthcare industry in between college and medical school. Just prior to joining medical school, he founded a healthcare IT company in the Bay Area named, Infinity Markets, which was focused on supply chain management. He grew this company to over 25 employees with a subsidiary office in Hyderabad, India. Sanjay has also lived in Chicago, IL, where he worked for CSC Healthcare as a consultant; in Boston, MA, where he performed Orthopaedic Surgery research at Children's Hospital of Boston; in Washington, D.C., where he worked for the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research analyzing the economic impact of proposed health legislation; in Chicago, IL. In terms of recreational activities, Sanjay loves playing sports and traveling. In addition, he has produced a short film, "Butterfly" set in Delhi, India which has screened at over 20 international film festivals and has won several awards including the "Audience Choice Award" at Paris International Film Festival.

Dr. Sriya Gunawardena is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and an Attending Physician in Hematology / Oncology at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Sriya received her medical degree from the Faculty of Medicine /University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and completed postgraduate training in Pediatrics at Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children in Colombo. After that, she continued medical training in the U.S.A., which included residency training in Pediatrics at Children's Hospital in Austin, TX, and fellowship training in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Cancer Center & Hematology service in Houston, TX. She is board certified in Pediatrics and in Pediatric Hematology /Oncology.

Sriya was born and raised in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She currently lives in Pittsburgh, Pa with her husband Ananda, who is an Associate teaching Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University and daughters Naomi(14) and Naoka(9). She enjoys traveling and has been a frequent traveler to Sri Lanka during the past several years. She has traveled to the island since the tsunami disaster in December 2004 to cordinate Project Peds tsunami relief efforts. In addition, she has also been actively involved in Sri Lankan American Association of Western Pennsylvannia's tsunami relief efforts.

Eric Hess is an executive of Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. In his role as Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer, he is responsible for overseeing the design and construction of the Hospital's $575 million new campus.

Prior to joining Children's, Eric spent more than eleven years with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, one of the world's largest professional services firms. A certified public accountant by trade, Eric spent the first five years at Deloitte within its Accounting and Auditing division, ultimately managing audit engagements with a focus on hospitals and health systems. In 1996, Eric transitioned full-time to healthcare consulting where he spent the next seven years specializing in strategic and financial planning, hospital operations improvement, merger and acquisitions, revenue maximization, and other financial management services. After a promotion to senior management, Eric served as the co-director for the firm's Strategic Repositioning/Turnaround Services practice unit. In this role, Eric led an integrated cross-functional team in assessing and implementing strategic and operational changes for hospitals with the objective of providing long-term, sustainable financial improvement. Eric claims several turnaround successes during his tenure with Deloitte.

In 2003, Eric accepted his current position at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and the opportunity to lead one of the largest healthcare construction projects in the country. When not working, Eric and his wife, Kristen, enjoy the challenges of raising their three small children (Kendall, Nathan and Marisa).

Kristin Maresca, M.A., is the US Managing Director of World Children's Initiative (WCI) and Project Peds. Prior to joining WCI, Kristin served as the Programs Coordinator for Women for Women International, an international NGO based in Washington, DC. She received her Bachelor's Degree with Honors in Spanish and Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin, and her Master's Degree with Distinction in Human Rights and International Development from American University's School of International Service, with a special focus on integrating development and conflict transformation initiatives, and on reconstruction in conflict and post-conflict environments. Kristin also has experience as a process and change management consultant with Accenture, and as the manager for a multi-million dollar social services program focused on providing child care subsidies to low-income families. She enjoys combining these experiences to assist small international and local nongovernmental organizations with developing gender and conflict sensitive programs, and with professionalizing their organizations and streamlining their processes.

Kristin has traveled and worked throughout Latin America and South and Southeast Asia, most recently on a post-tsunami assessment trip to the south, east and northeast of Sri Lanka and to evaluate new program development as the pro bono Director of Programs for a small international NGO focused on improving local capacities for peace.

In addition to the above work, Kristin is also a yoga teacher in the Kundalini Yoga tradition, and a regular practitioner of Kundalini, Anusara, and Baptiste Vinyasa Yoga. She am also a student of yogic philosophy, much of which has influenced her approach to her life's work.

C. Felix Amerasinghe, Esq. received his B.A. with Highest Honors in French from the University of Michigan, where he was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society in his junior year. He received his J.D. with Honors from the University of Chicago Law School. Prior to his current position as Attorney-Adviser in the Office of the Assistant General Counsel for the Environment at the Department of Energy, Mr. Amerasinghe practiced environmental law for over four years at the Washington, D.C. offices of Latham & Watkins LLP and Alston & Bird LLP.

Mr. Amerasinghe is of Sri Lankan ancestry. He is proficient in Tamil and French and is familiar with Sinhalese.

Mr. Amerasinghe has raised funds for a number of organizations and foundations that conduct relief and development work in Sri Lanka, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Thenuka Amerasinghe Fund (which pays for the living and educational expenses of a tsunami orphan) and Project Peds.

Mr. Amerasinghe maintains a keen interest in foreign policy, foreign languages, human rights and Sri Lankan politics. He has traveled widely in South Asia, East Asia, Europe, North Africa and the Americas, including to Sri Lanka more than a dozen times.

Nikhil Narayan is a United States national of Indian origin. Mr. Narayan is a lawyer by education and training, having attended Columbia University School of Law, New York, New York. Mr. Narayan received his bachelor of arts degree in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California. After completing his undergraduate education and prior to attending law school, Mr. Narayan worked as a paralegal in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. After law school, Mr. Narayan practiced as a litigation associate in New York at the international law firm of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, LLP, headquartered in New York.

Mr. Narayan is now based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where, in addition to his work with WCI and Project Peds, he is currently working with the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), Colombo, doing international human rights and constitutional law and policy research and analysis.