Chathri is a general ophthalmologist with a wide variety of sub-specialty interests. She graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) with Honours in 2004 from Monash University, Melbourne. She completed her ophthalmology training at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in Melbourne and followed this with a fellowship in general ophthalmology and rural ophthalmology with Lions Outback Vision, providing ophthalmology services to rural WA. The outback service model includes specialist outreach clinics and telemedicine. She has a continuing interest in ophthalmic service delivery to remote locations, and like many of her colleagues is aware of the economic and logistical impediments to providing access to complex technologies for those living in remote locations, since those technologies are almost never designed for mobility. Many of the programmes evaluated by the PPAP for support have a potential application to remote areas.

She works in the public health sector at Royal Perth and Fremantle hospitals, and privately at St John of God Subiaco Hospital and at Northern Eye Surgeons in Perth. She maintains a special interest in training and education for junior ophthalmologists and health care workers.