Hema Goonatilake received a Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in 1974. She was a senior faculty member at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, until 1989. Since then, she has served as a gender and development expert to UNDP and UNIFEM (New York) and UNDP (Cambodia), and as an advisor to the Buddhist Institute, Cambodia. She is the founder of Red Lotus Sri Lanka, a national Buddhist organization for humanitarian services.