Praveena Kulasinghe Joseph de Saram is a scientist, entrepreneur and changemaker. She is the Managing Director of the Shiranee Joseph de Saram Foundation, the first organization in Sri Lanka to support children and adults with Intellectual Disability (ID) and advocate for their rights.

Praveena has extensive experience in the non-profit and for-profit sectors. She served as a Trustee of the Princeton-Blairstown Center, an over 115-year-old charity that serves disadvantaged youth in the states of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania for nearly a decade. She has also served on numerous boards at Princeton University, including The Princeton University Store, The Annual Giving National Committee and continues to be a member of The Graduate Alumni Annual Giving Steering Committee. Prior to returning to Sri Lanka to lead SJDSF, Praveena was the founder of Poopooh LLC, a triple bottom line pet product business; Chief Operating Officer of Optimal Acuity Corporation and a Management Consultant with Kearney in the UAE. She currently serves on the boards of the Avinya Foundation and TRACE Innovation Hub in Sri Lanka.

Praveena read Physics at the University of Oxford and has a master’s in Molecular Biology and Neuroscience from Princeton University. Her research in The Berry Lab at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute (PNI) focused on neural computation in the retina, specifically novel methods to study the loss of function of amacrine cells. She also worked at PNI for Retrosense Therapeutics, a division of Allergan plc. evaluating the efficacy of a novel gene therapy treatment for retinitis pigmentosa, a type of blindness.

Praveena grew up in Colombo and studied at Visakha Vidyalaya. Her mother, Shiranee Joseph de Saram, was Sri Lanka’s first Speech and Language Pathologist and founder of the RCCI/SJDSF. Praveena has spent her entire life proximal to the special needs community in Sri Lanka. Her first jobs were leading the weekend art and cookery classes for children with special needs at the RCCI at age 12.

Praveena is passionate about education and creating opportunities for marginalized people. She looks forward to growing the Thrive Sheltered Workshop, creating competitive employment opportunities for neurodiverse people throughout Sri Lanka via the Supported Employment Programme at SJDSF, and to helping young people with difficulty learning via the Avinya Foundation.

Praveena was recognized as the Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2024 by the Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce for the positive impact created by the Thrive Sheltered Workshop and Supported Employment Programme.