Vinya Ariyaratne
Senior Research Fellow, Non-Resident
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.
News April 1, 2025: Dr. Ariyaratne has been named to the Lancet Commission on Faith, Trust, and Health coordinated by the Georgetown University Global Health Institute. More detail on the GDS NEWS page.
Man Bahadur Bishwakarma
Senior Research Fellow, Non-Resident
Dr. Man Bahadur Bishwakarma did postdoctoral research on food security at our GDS Center as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar (2016/17). In 2021, he was the first person of Dalit background to be appointed the Secretary of the Government of Nepal (the most senior officer in Nepal’s Civil Service). Given his deep experience on conflict, peace and constitution building process, he led the Constitutional Dialogue Centre/UNDP during the Constitutional Assembly-I in Nepal. Earlier, he earned his Ph.D. on Social Inclusion at Tribhuvan University, Nepal and received a postgraduate diploma (Social Studies) from ISS, Netherlands (2004), an MA (Economics) in Rural and Cooperative Development (2000) and an MBA (1991) from Tribhuvan University. He has served as the academic dean for Madhesh University, Nepal and is currently a professor of economics at Akamai University, USA and serves as president of Native Arts and Heritage Academy, Nepal. He has long working experience with international development agencies including GiZ, Save the Children, UNICEF, CWS UK, and UNDP.
Mei-Ling Ellerman
Research and Advocacy Fellow, Domestic Violence and Coercive Control
Marion Howard
Professor Emerita of International Development (Biosphere reserve management)
Hadi Kahalzadeh
Affiliated Researcher
Santosh Raut
Senior Research Fellow, Non-Resident
Dr. Santosh Raut (also known as Maitriveer-Nagarjuna) hails from Maharashtra, the heartland of the Ambedkarite Buddhist movement. A Dhamma teacher, theologian, and scholar of Buddhist Aesthetics and Philosophy, he has long been a thought leader and organizer within broader Asian networks of Engaged Buddhism. Following his doctoral studies in Buddhist Aesthetics, Kant, and Schopenhauer at Jawaharlal Nehru University and Coddington Court, UK, Santosh joined the Department of Aesthetics and Philosophy, EFL University in Hyderabad as an Assistant Professor. He combines this work with his role as Deputy-Chairman of the Nagarjuna Training Institute and founder of The Babasaheb Ambedkar Philosophical Society at Nagaloka in Nagpur. Founded in 1994 near the site where Dr. Ambedkar formally converted to Buddhism in 1956, along with hundreds of thousands of followers, Nagaloka is a major Ambedkarite hub connected to the Triratna Bauddha Mahāsaṅgha. For several years, he has actively supported the Ambedkarite Buddhist movement among the Roma in Hungary, about which a documentary was made. In April 2025, Dr. Raut delivered a keynote address at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Dr. Ambedkar's Quest for Global Fraternity and Equality, and was subsequently invited to deliver a second keynote address on "The Lotus Blooms in Troubled Waters: Buddha's Middle Path Through a Fractured World and His Wisdom for Global Challenges."
Sabine von Mering
Professor of German and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Director of the Center for German and European Studies