Dr. Rosalia (Lia) Sciortino Sumaryono, a cultural anthropologist and development sociologist by training specialized in medical anthropology and Southeast Asia studies earned her doctorate at the Vrije Universities, Amsterdam with honors. Currently, she is Associate Professor at the Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University and Visiting Professor at the Master in International Development Studies (MAIDS), Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. She also recently started SEA Junction, a public venue for interaction and cross-learning on Southeast Asia (www.seajunction.org)

Most recently, Dr. Sciortino was IDRC Regional Director for Southeast and East Asia in Singapore (2010-2014), Senior Adviser for the Health Program to the Australian Agency for International Development in Indonesia (2009-2010), and Regional Director for Asia of the Rockefeller Foundation (2000-2007) establishing during her tenure the Foundations Southeast Asia Office in Bangkok while also acting as health and gender specialist. Prior to that, she was program officer Gender, Human Development and Reproductive Health at the Indonesia and Philippines offices of the Ford Foundation from 1993 to 2000.

Dr. Sciortino acts as a consultant for international and regional organizations, as an adviser for academic and international development institutions, and is a member of scientific and institutional boards. She has published widely on development issues in Southeast Asia, in particular, social health, sexual and reproductive health, gender, migration, poverty and vulnerability and regional integration in the Greater Mekong Sub-region and ASEAN. A Dutch national native of Palermo, Italy, she fluently speaks Italian, English, Indonesian and Dutch.