Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala is a feminist, women's rights activist with 15 years of experience in the field of women's rights and gender equality. In May 2016, she became the first Sri Lankan person, to reach the summit of Mount Everest. In recognition of this and her professional career as a women’s rights activist, she was appointed the first-ever Goodwill Ambassador for Women’s Rights, by the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs, Sri Lanka.

As her journey to Everest has combined two of the things she’s most passionate about - gender equality and mountaineering – she continues to use the public platform that she has now received to challenge gender stereotypes and promote the rights of women and girls at every opportunity. As an independent consultant, she is currently co-creating ‘Delete Nothing’ - a local initiative aimed at addressing tech-related violence against women, girls and trans people in Sri Lanka. Through her work with Chrysalis (Sri Lanka), Jayanthi is also co-leading a global team to shape the GBV prevention and response programming on behalf of CARE International.

Jayanthi holds a master’s degree in Gender Studies from the University of Sussex, UK.

(Photo credit: Prathap Kumaraperuma)