Rooted in communities, built for change
About ME
Hi, I’m Gayanthi, a PhD student in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
My research focuses on how environmental and social pressures — climate change, shifting policies, economic shocks — create vulnerabilities for smallholder farmers and Indigenous peoples. I work to understand how these communities experience disruption across food security, agriculture, health, and what adaptation and transformation pathways are available to them in practice.
EDUCATION
PhD in Natural Resources and Environmental sciences (2025 – current)
College of Agricultural, Consumer & Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA
M.Sc. in Geography (2023-2025)
Department of Geography, Virginia Tech, USA
Thesis title: Identifying impacts of non-climatic factors and adaptation responses on food security of Indigenous Peoples in the pan-Arctic region
B.Sc.in Agricultural Technology and Management (specialized in Agricultural Economics)
Faculty of Agriculture
University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
Thesis title: An Ex‑ante Assessment of New Rice Breeding Technologies for Sri Lanka.