Nilakshi Gunatillaka is a qualitative primary care researcher with the Monash Addiction Research Centre and the Health and Social Care Unit at Monash University. 

Nilakshi's emerging research program focuses on strengthening health services' capacity to respond to people experiencing disadvantage. Her work builds on the principles of intersectionality and implementation science. 

Nilakshi co-leads the Deep End Living Lab which seeks to transform how Australian hospital support people experiencing homelessness. The Deep End Living Lab has gathered evidence of the systemic barriers hindering healthcare access for people experiencing homelessness. The team has used these insights to develop a proof of concept training and resource package to build the capacity of frontline clinicians to discuss housing with their patients, then respond to identified needs by adapting clincial care and engaging with the necessary support services. 

Nilakshi has been involved in several multi-centre research projects, inclduing the IMPACT Research Program which sought to improve access to essentail primary care services for people experiencing varied forms of disadvantage across three regions of Australia and Canada, and the OPTIMISE Partnership Project which aimed to address pervasive challenges relating to the acceptabiltiy of primary care for people from refugee like backgrounds in New South Wales and Victoria, Australia.