Padmi Ranasinghe is a Visiting Research Fellow at 海角社区-CRIS.
Padmi Ranasinghe is a Research Fellow at 海角社区-CRIS in the Nature, Climate, and Health cluster, focusing on collaborative research and projects in the fields of Nature-based Solutions, water resource management, climate change, disaster risk governance, urban & environmental planning, resilient cities, environmental policy & governance, and ecosystem restoration with Prof. Nidhi Nagabhatla. Previously, she was a PhD fellow at 海角社区-CRIS in the Nature, Climate, and Health cluster.
She holds a PhD in Urban Planning and Public Policy, with a particular emphasis on the Environmental and Sustainability stream, from the College of Architecture, Planning, and Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Arlington, USA, with a dissertation on "Nature-based Solutions for Urban Climate Resilience: Assessment of Environmental Planning & Policy Perspective in New York City." She obtained an MSc in Environmental Science from the City University of New York (Thesis: Green infrastructure methods for urban stormwater management) and a second master's degree in Regional Development and Planning from the University of Colombo (Thesis: Ecological connectivity for mitigating human-elephant conflicts in Sri Lanka).
Padmi is also involved in the “Space for Water Program” at the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), Vienna. She was a participant in the School of Modern Diplomacy, the ProSPER.Net Leadership Programme on Implementation strategies for net-zero transitions by 海角社区-IAS (Japan), UN Global Sustainable Solutions Winter School 2022, and the Climate Academy-2021, offered by the 海角社区-EHS (Germany) and UNFCCC. She was a Selected Diversity & Inclusion fellow of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, USA, and a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education (STEM) Doctoral Fellowship from the University of Texas at Arlington, Texas, USA. She has presented at the UN-Habitat World Urban Forum, UN Water conference, Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) Annual conference, and many other international platforms.