Board
Richard Brooks
Chairman
Mr. Brooks is Outreach Program Manager at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He teaches Facilitating Health and Social Change, consults with programs in youth and community development, public health, service learning and global education. Former volunteer director of Sarvodaya USA, he has also served with SHARE Wisconsin, a three-state community building, food security and service program(chair), Wisconsin Positive Youth Development Initiative (chair) and Wisconsin Partners for SustainAbility as well as more than 20 other local, statewide, national and international non-profit groups.
Shisir Khanal
Executive Director
As Executive Director, Shisir manages operations, programs, donor relations, communications and fundraising efforts for Sarvodaya USA. Prior to working at Sarvodaya USA, he worked as Research Assistant at Robert M. La Follette School at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, interned with United Nations Development Program in Nepal and worked at Connecticut General Assembly. He is also an advisor to ENVEST a micro-fiance organization based in Madison. Shisir graduated with a Masters degree in International Public Affairs (MIPA) in 2005 from the La Follette School of Public Affairs and has a Bachelor’s degree in International Political Economy from University of Bridgeport.
Mary Woodward
Treasurer
Mary Woodward has worked in international education at universities in the United States and for governments in Southeast Asia for over 20 years. Her most recent position has been as career development coordinator for the master’s in public affairs degree program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She volunteered with the Sarvodaya USA office following the tsunami and developed an interest in the organization and Sarvodaya’s work in Sri Lanka.
Patricia Masters, PH.D.
Dr.Masters is professor and director of study abroad programs for Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. A recipient of Fulbright grants for teaching in Sri Lanka, she also teaches courses on women, religion and politics in Asia.
Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne
Executive Director-Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka
Dr. Ariyaratne is the Executive Director of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement of Sri Lanka. He is a medical doctor with expertise in community medicine and has taught at several medical schools in Sri Lanka. In recent years, he has been in the forefront of civil sector peace initiatives. He also serves in several national policy committees, he is one of the only three civil society representatives in the high-level Donor/Civil Society Steering Committee formed by the key multilateral donors to the tsunami recovery program. Dr. Ariyaratne has published in several national and international public health and development journals.
George Bond, PH.D.
Dr. Bond is a professor in the Department of Religion at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. He is the author of Buddhism at Work: Community Development, Social Empowerment and the Sarvodaya Movement; The Buddhist Revival in Sri Lanka: Religious Tradition, Reinterpretation, and Response and numerous other publications on Buddhism, Hinduism and the history of religion.
Dr. Harsha P. Jayatilake
Born and raised in Sri Lanka, Dr. Harsha Jayatilake is a recognized leader in Urgent Care. Prior to practicing Urgent Care at St. Joseph Mercy Oakland, Dr. Jayatilake attended medical school at North Columbo Medical School. Following medical school, Dr. Jayatilake’s career brought him to Wayne State University/DMC for his residency.
He is also an avid community organizer and supports several community groups in Detroit metro area.
Michael Trainer
Mr. Trainer is an artist, educator, and social change agent. As a Fulbright Scholar in Sri Lanka, he apprenticed in the ritual arts with a seventh-generation healer. This formative experience revealed to him the powerful potential for the arts to build consciousness and heal communities. He applied this knowledge in working with school children in the U.S. to help support Tsunami-affected youth through Sarvodaya’s Suwasetha program. Currently, Michael is a FLAS fellow at Columbia University, where he studies Tamil and international educational development.
Advisors
Joanna Macy, Ph.D., of Berkeley, California, is author of Dharma and Development: Religion as Resource in the Sarvodaya Self-Help Movement; Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World; World as Lover; World as Self; Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory; The Dharma of Living Systems, Thinking Like a Mountain: Towards A Council of All Beings and many other publications on Buddhism, deep ecology and general systems theory. She serves as adjunct professor at the Starr King School for the Ministry, the University of Creation Spirituality, and the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Dr. Patrick Mendis. Born in Sri Lanka, Dr. Mendis first became familiar with the Sarvodaya Movement when he was a 12-year old rural child in the ancient city of Polonnaruwa. With his Buddhist-Christian background, his interest in the non-violence peace Movement and the admiration for his mentor-friend Dr. Ari have been unabated ever since. As a university professor, American diplomat, advocate of global education, and author, Dr. Mendis has promoted Sarvodaya to his colleagues and students worldwide for many years. He has provided scholarships and training support for young Sri Lankan professionals through the leader-to-leader program and dedicated the proceeds from his most recent book (2nd edition), Glocalization, to Sarvodaya and other tsunami projects in Sri Lanka. He and his family live in the Washington D.C. area.
Denese Ashbaugh Vlosky, JD, Ph.D., has been involved in international and community development issues for over 25 years. She was originally introduced to the Sarvodaya Movement over 20 years ago as a college student studying international social development; when she wrote to Dr. Ari, he wrote back! She has served in various board positions for Sarvodaya USA and on consulting assignments for Sarvodaya proper. In 2005 she traveled to post-Tsunami Sri Lanka to do an impact assessment in the Matara District and to identify a village in which to build a preschool with the monies raised by the International Student Association at the Louisiana State University (LSU). She is currently a Research Associate in the Office of Social Service Research and Development in the School of Social Work at LSU where she’s the coordinator of an evaluation project of selected LA TANF Programs including: Individual Development Accounts, Earned Income Tax Credit, Microenterprise Development, Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Family Independence Temporary Assistance Program, FINDWORK and Strategies to Empower People.
Richard Flyer, founder of the Truckee Meadows Conscious Community and Business Network (www.ccbnreno.org), is owner of a medical clinic (Northern Nevada Hyperbarics, Inc.) in Reno, NV. He has served as a community organizer, manager of a metropolitan food bank in San Diego, and ran a statewide microenterprise fund and training program in Nevada. He is also an educator about Sarvodaya and community vision for nearly two decades.
Staff
Kelly Saran, Administrative Assistant. Kelly works with the office staff to maintain an efficient and workable environment at our Madison office . She manages our accounting and bookkeeping and coordinates our volunteer programs. Kelly is a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying Life science and Communications.
Shafia Powell –Development Coordinator. As Development Coordinator, Shafia is responsible for creating and maintaining a robust and diverse donor base including individual donors, organizations, governmental and foundation grants. She oversees the expansion of individual donor support including annual giving, telefundraising, mailings, house parties and other events. Shafia also manages all activities associated with grant seeking including research, grant writing, and follow up management.
