Dr Tara de Mel (MBBS, MPhil, MD), a university academic, who subsequently spent about fifteen years in policy making in education whilst serving as an Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka and Secretary to the Ministry of Education. She has been practicing meditation since 2007 and for nearly 12 years under the guidance of venerables Dhammajiva and Chandaratana. She has been responsible for designing programs for mindfulness in schools, and mindfulness with values, inclusivity & ethics education, and testing the impact of mindfulness in school children and teachers. She’s a member of the Global Consultative Group of Mindfulness Initiative UK. She is currently Co- founder, Education Forum Sri Lanka and Mindful Educators Sri Lanka and is a Member of the Worldwide Commission to Educate All Kids Post Pandemic.
In August 2019 she received National Honors: Sri Lanka Sikhamani