Nath Samaratunga was a 2022 Zetema Project Fellow and is a 2025 MD candidate at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
As a Zetema Project Fellow, his role is to participate and present in Project meetings, contribute to Project research and writing, and enhance the Project’s network by engaging with the Project’s Panelists, Contributors, and staff. Nath’s work lies at the nexus of primary care, economics, and social policy, through which he strives to maximize public-private partnerships to sustainably eliminate barriers of access to healthcare and to health itself. These passions were fueled by macro-level experiences, such as conducting pandemic-related research for former federal officials, and micro-level interventions, such as advising the Minneapolis City Council on community-based public health research as they considered redesigning their Department of Public Safety. Nath was also the founder of a social impact tea company and an educational consulting firm that both aimed to promote optimal health and wellbeing in Sri Lanka.
Nath earned his MPH in Public Health Administration and Policy from the University of Minnesota. He graduated with a BS in Cognitive and Brain Sciences with a minor in Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies from Tufts University.