CAFS has been Giselle’s dream ever since she returned to Sri Lanka in 2015 after completing her MSc in Child and Adolescent Mental Health at King’s College London, prior to which she held a BSc in Psychology and Counselling. She recently completed a National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) funded PhD in Population Health Sciences at the University of Bristol, where her research focused on children and adolescents exposed to domestic violence in post conflict populations in Northern Sri Lanka and how best to integrate school and healthcare systems to provide better support. She is also a visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo and consults for a number of private and international organisations. Additionally, she supports schools in the development and evaluation of special needs units and teacher trainings. Giselle is also a director of our parent organisation THEME Institute which is a not-for-profit think tank conducting multidisciplinary research in Sri Lanka in collaboration with several international and local universities and donors.
In addition to this, Giselle holds a wealth of experience in both the humanitarian and mental health settings. This includes her previous work with stranded and irregular migrants at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) – UN agency and also her work at the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK at a specialised Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). Her experience also ranges from project development to implementation to monitoring and evaluation, with a special interest in post-conflict populations.
