Core Faculty and Researchers

Professor Vinya Ariyaratne, MD, MPH, MSc., is Senior Research Fellow, Non-Resident. Dr. Ariyaratne is General Secretary, Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, and Community Medicine Faculty of Medical Sciences University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. He also serves as the Director General of the Sarvodaya Institute of Higher Learning. Dr. Ariyaratne leads the Sarvodaya/GDS partnership on Re-imagining Sri Lanka's Social Protection Mechanisms, a research consultation with Sri Lankan civil society and community stakeholders.

Hadi Kahalzadeh received his doctorate in the Global Development and Sustainability concentration of the PhD Program at the Heller School at Brandeis. Hadi's dissertation, Economic Sanctions, Poverty, Inequality, and Vulnerability in Iran has received significant interest from policy makers and was highlighted by Fareed Zakaria on his CNN program. Hadi has an MA in Sustainable International Development from the Heller School at Brandeis, an MA in Energy Economics from the Islamic Azad University, and a BA in Economics from Allameh Tabatabai University in Tehran. Prior to coming to Brandeis, Hadi worked on capacity development including monitoring and evaluation in nonprofit organizations and worked as an economist in Iran’s Social Security Organization for eight years. He also served as a member of the board for several civil-society pro-democratic organizations in Iran. These organizations focused on ethnic rights, labor movements and allyship with women. Hadi’s research interests are workforce development, labor policies and implementation of broad-based partnership.

Affiliated Researcher

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