About Fulbright Sri Lanka

Ambassador Julie Chung

Honorary Chair
U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka

Nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Ambassador Julie Chung has been the U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka since February 2022. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, Ambassador Chung has previously held senior positions throughout the Indo-Pacific and Western Hemisphere.
Prior to her current role, Ambassador Chung served as the Acting Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. She also has extensive experience in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, including as the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Japan, Deputy Chief of Mission in Cambodia, and Economic Counselor in Thailand. In addition, she has served at the U.S. embassies in Iraq, Colombia, Vietnam, and Japan, and the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, China. She also served as an advisor on nonproliferation discussions of the Agreed Framework with North Korea while working in the Office of Korean Affairs in Washington.
As a child, Ambassador Chung immigrated to the United States from Korea and was raised in Huntington Beach, California. She received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California San Diego and an M.A. in International Affairs from Columbia University and joined the Foreign Service in 1996 in the first cohort of the Thomas R. Pickering Fellowship program. Ambassador Chung has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Presidential Rank Award and the Secretary’s Distinguished Honor Award, and speaks Korean, Japanese, Spanish, and Khmer.

Menaka Nayyar

Chair
Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka

Menaka Nayyar is the Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka. She is responsible for overseeing the embassy’s public outreach through media engagements and cultural programs and grants.
She has served in a variety of roles in Washington, Poland, Russia, Italy, Estonia, Pakistan, Thailand, and The Gambia, and was most recently a policy advisor in the Bureau of Global Talent Management.
She was also an Una Chapman Cox Sabbatical Fellow and a participant in the Secretary’s Leadership Seminar at Harvard Business School. Menaka received a B.A. in Individualized Studies (Sociology and European Studies focus) and an M.A. in Media Studies from New York University, an M.Sc. in Human Rights from the London School of Economics, and an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Georgetown University. She is married to fellow Foreign Service officer Anthony Pirnot, and they are joined in Colombo by their son Nico.

Sharlina Hussain-Morgan

Treasurer
Director for Public Engagement, U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka

Sharlina Hussain-Morgan holds a B.S. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a M.A. in conflict resolution from Georgetown University. She is an experienced and innovative multilingual American diplomat in communications and international education, and has led teams of 20-40 people from various backgrounds to be highly organized, detail-oriented, resourceful, innovative, and forward thinking. Her experiences in international engagement and policy span five continents. During her Foreign Service, she covered human rights issues in North Korea, Cambodia, and Thailand in the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Prior to her DC assignment, she served in Ghana, Pakistan, Egypt, and the United Kingdom. While in Karachi, Pakistan, she served as spokesperson and led interagency U.S. government communications for Sindh and Balochistan provinces. Ms. Hussain-Morgan constantly seeks out paths to create networks for women and people of color in public and foreign policy.

Deepika Udagama

Professor and Head of Department of Law, University of Peradeniya
Former Chair of Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission

Deepika Udagama is Chair Professor of Law and former Head of the Department of Law at the University of Peradeniya. Professor Udagama is former Chairperson of Sri Lanka’s National Human Rights Commission. She was the Founding Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights at the University of Colombo. She was Sri Lanka’s Alternate Member to the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and its Co-Special Rapporteur on Globalization and Its Impact on the Full Enjoyment of Human Rights. She was also a member of the UN Trust Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights. Professor Udagama holds LLB and LLM Degrees from the University of Colombo, and an LLM and Doctor of Juridical Science Degrees (JSD) from University of California-Berkeley. She was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the Harvard Human Rights Centre.

Sonia Dandona Hirdaramani

Investor
Founder, Ivy League Alumni of Sri Lanka (IVYSL)

Sonia Hirdaramani began her career in finance and entertainment, but after relocating to Sri Lanka from the United States, she shifted her focus to personal investing and non-profit work.
Sonia leverages her extensive background in finance from her tenure at the investment bank, Morgan Stanley, towards her portfolio and role on the Investment Committee of HERCapital in Sri Lanka, the country’s first gender smart ESG fund. A staunch advocate for gender equality, Sonia also has focused past efforts on UN Women (HeForShe) and microfinance at the UNDP.
Previously, she successfully co-managed her family’s South Asian entertainment company, earning recognition from the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and the Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs.
She also actively promotes stronger ties between the United States and South Asia through her involvement in various non-profit organizations, including serving as a member of the Board of Columbia University’s International Advisory Board, Nexus Global’s India Steering Committee and the Board of the US-Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission.
A graduate of Columbia University, Sonia founded IVYSL, a networking group for the Ivy League alumni of Sri Lanka. A life-long learner, Sonia has continued her education through courses and programs at Harvard University, Harvard Business School, Columbia Business School and the Indian School of Business.

Prabha Manuratne

Professor, Department of English, University of Kelaniya
Director, Centre for Gender Equity/Equality at the University Grants Commission

Prabha Manuratne is Professor, Department of English, University of Kelaniya, and currently serves as the Director, Centre for Gender Equity/Equality at the University Grants Commission, Sri Lanka. She was the Founding Director of the Centre for Social Reconciliation at the University of Kelaniya and former Director of the Inclusivity Centre of the University of Kelaniya. Her research focuses on violence and representations of violence in literature and cinema, with a special focus on structural violence. She is a public intellectual who regularly speaks on women’s rights and education rights, and is currently working on curbing institutional and institutionalized violence within the Sri Lankan university system, particularly ragging/hazing and sexual and gender based violence. She holds a PhD in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo and was a Fulbright Scholar at the Department of English, Kansas State University.

Ravindra Dias

Chairman of the Board, Carson Cumberbatch PLC
Chairman of the Board, Seylan Bank

Ravi Dias had a distinguished career in banking, retiring as Managing Director/CEO of Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC. He also served as Managing Director of Commercial Bank Development and a Director of Commercial Insurance Brokers. He earned an LLB and was honored to be named a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in the UK. He was a Humphrey Fellow in which he spent 10 months in the U.S. studying banking and finance.
Ravi is presently Chairman and Independent Non-Executive Director of Carson Cumberbatch PLC. He is also the Chairman of Seylan Bank PLC, Senkadagala Finance PLC and Ceylon Tea Marketing (Pvt) Ltd. Ravi additionally serves on the Board of Tokyo Cement Company (Lanka) PLC as Independent Non-Executive Director. He is past Chairman of Senkadagala Finance PLC. Other boards he served on include Lanka Clear and Lanka Financial Services Bureau. Ravi was a past Council Member of the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon and Committee Member of Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.

Patrick McNamara

Executive Director, Board Member (Ex-Officio)

Patrick McNamara, Ph.D., serves as Executive Director of the United States-Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission. He has worked with universities, governments, corporations, nonprofits, and foundations for over 35 years. Before joining Fulbright Sri Lanka, Patrick was at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) where he taught conflict resolution, sustainable development, and social entrepreneurship. At UNO, he also served as Senior International Officer, Director of the International Studies major and minor, Director of the Sustained Dialogue Initiative and Director of the Omaha World Affairs Council. Dr. McNamara achieved distinction as a Fulbright-Nehru Senior Scholar in India in 2011, during which he spent time on a Regional Travel Grant to Sri Lanka.
Other past experience includes: Director of Philanthropic Services at Omaha Community Foundation which annually donated over $80 million to nonprofits; Director of the Omaha Hate Crimes Project, a partnership funded by the U.S. Department of Justice to fight hate and discrimination; managing a printing ink manufacturing company; litigation paralegal at a Wall Street law firm; and Capitol Page in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is on the governing board of Initiatives of Change, a global interfaith NGO “building trust across the world’s divides.” Patrick’s TED Talk is Water Conflict, Water Peace.
Dr. McNamara earned a Ph.D. from the School of Public Administration at UNO. His dissertation research, funded by a fellowship from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, focused on public-private partnerships to solve homelessness. He earned a M.Sc. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University with specializations in international and organizational dispute resolution. His B.A. in Religion is from Swarthmore College where he studied comparative religions and ethics.

Patrick may be reached at patrick@fulbrightsrilanka.org.

Soraya Fajudeen

Executive & Program Assistant

Soraya Fajudeen has served as Executive and Program Assistant for 20 years at US-SLFC. She works closely with our staff to successfully administer the Fulbright programs. Prior to joining the Fulbright Commission, she worked at the Asia Foundation-Sri Lanka, Television Trust for the Environment-Sri Lanka, and in the NGO and the corporate sectors.

Soraya may be reached at soraya@fulbrightsrilanka.org.

Shanaka Premarathna

Program Officer

Shanaka Premarathna is the Program Officer at the United States-Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission. He brings skills and experience in education, business, strategic planning, program management, stakeholder engagement, and outreach. He has played a key role in enhancing U.S.-Sri Lanka collaboration in various capacities. Shanaka previously served as Coordinator of the American Corner Matara, a U.S. Embassy-supported information center, where he oversaw daily operations, developed strategic initiatives, and fostered partnerships with NGOs, educational institutions, and private sector organizations. Previous to that he was Chief Executive Officer of the Matara District Chamber of Commerce & Industry. He holds an MBA from University of Ruhuna.

Shanaka may be reached at shanaka@fulbrightsrilanka.org.

Nuwan Dinushka

Financial Manager

Nuwan Dinushka is Fulbright Sri Lanka’s Financial Manager. He works closely with the Executive Director and other staff on all finance activities. He has over eight years of accounting and auditing experience and previously worked at Deloitte Sri Lanka and IBM World Trade Corporation.

Nuwan may be reached at finance@fulbrightsrilanka.org.

Isa Spoerry

EducationUSA Adviser

Isa Spoerry is the EducationUSA Adviser to Sri Lanka. She obtained her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from New York University, where she studied Social & Cultural Analysis, Global & Urban Education, and Peace & Conflict Studies. Isa brings prior advising experience as a Club Life Adviser in the Center for Student Life at NYU and as a private college consultant.
Originally from the United States, Isa relocated to Sri Lanka in 2023 to deepen her understanding of her own heritage and is delighted to work with highly motivated Sri Lankan students pursuing U.S. higher education.

For Fulbright-related matters, Isa may be reached at isa@fulbrightsrilanka.org. For EducationUSA-related matters, Isa may be reached at ispoerry@educationusa.org.