Board of Directors

 

Nick Batter - nick@srilankanaid.com

Nick grew up in Nebraska, later moving to Northern California where he completed high school. He is an alumnus of UCLA and Harvard College. To date, Sri Lanka is the first and only foreign country he has ever spent time in. He writes and speaks basic Tamil. While not working on a project, his favorite things in Sri Lanka are sour mangos and improvised fishing expeditions. His enemies are mosquitoes and spicy curries. Nick was awarded the 2006 McKinley Fellowship for his role in the organization, and he loves transporting heavy equipment and doing construction projects.

 

Margaret Leighton - margaret@srilankanaid.com

Margaret grew up in Saskatoon, on the Canadian Great Plains. After completing an economics degree at Harvard and Mount Allison University, Margaret joined Sri Lankan Aid in 2007. Finding that the world was undersupplying engaged learning opportunities to children in Eastern Sri Lanka, she set about to correct that market failure by developing the LEAP Sri Lanka program. As a side project, Margaret and her accordion have been working to establish an Irish Traditional Music following in Valaichenai town, so far with minimal results. Margaret will be completing a masters degree in economics at Toulouse School of Economics in June 2010.

 

Gereon Yee - gereon@srilankanaid.com

Gereon attends the University of California, Davis and is California born and raised.  He first got involved with Sri Lankan Aid in 2005 and has traveled to Sri Lanka three times.  Like the rest of the team, Sri Lanka is a second home to him—it’s the only place where you get to eat spicy food for every meal!  Gereon loves to eat mangosteens and trek barefoot through snake/crocodile infested waters in order to find the best fishing spot.  He is currently in the process of earning his B.S. in chemistry and in the future would like to somehow apply this to environmental development in Sri Lanka.

 

Cory Hoover - cory@srilankanaid.com

Cory is a Northern California native and alumnus of Rochester Institute of Technology.  He became involved with Sri Lankan Aid in 2005.  When not lugging around a camera and tripod to document the many breathtaking sights of Sri Lanka, Cory enjoys watching three-hour action blockbuster musicals starring Joseph Vijay.  Cory currently resides in Los Angeles, where he is a graphic designer at Sony Pictures Entertainment.

 

Lauren Walker - lauren@srilankanaid.com

Lauren grew up in southern California and graduated with an Economics
degree from Harvard University in 2008. Before joining the Sri Lankan
Aid team, she spent time working with microfinance in Peru, education
in Costa Rica, and health systems in Tanzania. She loves riding
motorcycles on Valaichchenai dirt roads in Bella-like near death
experiences, digging for midnight clams with her toes, and shooting
the moon in a friendly game of train station hearts. She is currently
a finance and strategy analyst at The Walt Disney Company.