Piyumi Fonseka served as the Communications Manager at LIRNEasia, where she led and executed strategic communication initiatives. She was responsible for distilling complex policy research into accessible and engaging content for diverse audiences.
Before transitioning to strategic communications, she worked as the Deputy Editor – Investigations at the Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka’s most circulated daily English print outlet, where she specialized in social issues investigations. Since 2014, she covered many local and regional issues.
Piyumi is currently pursuing her Master’s in Media Research at the University of Colombo. She also holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Mass Communication from the Malayalam Manorama School of Communication in Kerala, India, and has studied Journalism and Criminal Law at the University of Colombo.
She was the recipient of the Young Reporter of the Year award in 2015 and the Investigative Journalist of the Year award in 2021 at the Sri Lankan Journalism Awards for Excellence organized by the Sri Lanka Press Institute and Editors’ Guild. Her reporting highlighting the plight of Tamil Sri Lankan refugees languishing in Tamil Nadu refugee camps was shortlisted for the Young Journalist Award in 2017, organized by the Thomson Foundation and the Foreign Press Association of the UK.
She also completed the World Press Institute fellowship in the USA and the Edward R. Murrow Research and Investigations – International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) organized by the U.S. State Department, where she studied American media and best practices in the field.
Previously, she won fellowships and attended several international training programmes, including the Future News Worldwide Conference in London, UK, organized by the British Council in July 2019; the Third Asian Investigative Journalism Conference held in South Korea in July 2018; and the 11th Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Hamburg, Germany in September 2019.