Shilohni Sumanthiran worked on UNICEF's emergency response to the economic crisis before coming to Oxford.

Shilohni left Sri Lanka for her undergraduate degree in political science and psychology at Swarthmore College, USA. After she completed her degree she returned home and worked briefly for the State Minister of Finance, where she learnt more about public finance and economics.

Shilohni also did socioeconomic research on issues such as corruption and maternity benefits and analysed nationally representative household surveys at a leading think tank called Verité Research.

In 2021 she moved to UNICEF, where she focused on her key policy interests in social protection and child poverty. She is also currently the coach of Sri Lanka's national debate team and as a result, spends a lot of her free time arguing with seventeen-year-olds.

Upon the completion of the MPP, Shilohni wants to return home and work towards building stronger shock-responsive and child-sensitive social protection systems in Sri Lanka.

Shilohni is a Public Service Scholar.