Haddis Alemayehu Academy
ሀዲስ ዓለማየሁ አካዳሚ
HAANA's Board of Directors
Muluemebet Chekol
President
Muluemebet Chekol Hunegnaw is the Vice President and a member of the Executive Leadership Team at a global non-profit organization, HIAS with programs across Africa, Latin America and Caribbean, the Middle East and Eurasia regions. Muluemebet is an economist by profession with expertise in strategic planning, program management, program design, monitoring and evaluation.
Firew Mekonnen
Vice President
Firew Mekonnen lives in Austin, Texas with his family, wife and two daughters. He has several years of professional experience in the field of IT in Ethiopia and the USA. Firew currently works as an IT Business Analyst and Software Release Engineer. He holds Master of Science in Computer Information Systems. He has been involved in various community and social organizations including GOLAM, a non-profit organization, that partnered with the Anti Malaria Association to prevent malaria epidemic in Gojjam Province.
Mengistu Desta
Secretary
Mengistu Desta holds BSc in Computer Science and MSc in Information Technology. He attended his bachelor’s degree at Addis Ababa University and his master’s degree at Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea. He is currently an Application Systems Engineer at Wells Fargo Bank, USA. Mengistu served as a programmer at Ethiopian Telecommunication.
Getachew Desybelew
Treasurer
Getachew Desybelew holds a B.A. in Business Administration and MSc in Finance. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Addis Ababa University and his master’s degree from Golden Gate University, San Francisco, CA, USA. He currently woks as Risk & Regulatory Reporting Analyst (SME for the implementation of Basel III Liquidity and Regulatory Capital Frameworks) for Wells Fargo Bank, USA.
Mastewal Mekonnen (PhD)
Assistant Secretary
Dr. Mastewal Mekonnen is an assistant professor of mental health counseling at Southeastern Oklahoma State University since August 2018. Mastewal was a lecturer at Addis Ababa University.
Mastewal believes in creating partnership and networks between groups and /or among professionals for joint projects and transfer of knowledge as well as advanced technology.
Abel Gashe
Public Relation Head
Abel Gashe has been a doctoral candidate at Tulane University in Finance excepting the dissertation. He has earned his M.B.A from Rochester Institute of Technology. He is currently pursuing Applied Data Science with Emeritus Management Institute in Columbia University. Abel Is currently serving as Senior Financial Consultant for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Abel is a poet and an author.
Tessema Bitew
Internal Auditor
Tessema Bitew is a Certified Public Accountant, serving as a Supervisor at Honda of Canada Manufacturing. Tessema has over 22 years of professional service in a multinational company in Canada and five years of college teaching in Ethiopia. He also have more than 19 years of humanitarian service for many organizations, including a member of People to People, Canada and as a board member of DevXchange International.
Gizachew Beyene
Strategic Planning Head
Gizachew Beyene studied Economics and graduated with a BA Degree from the Addis Ababa University and further Specialized in International Trade (with a Post graduate Diploma) and Development Economics (with MA Degree), both of which were received from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, in the United Kingdom. For the most part. Gizachew served in the Ethiopian Government at various capacities - as Department Head of Project Appraisal and also as the Head of the Multilateral Cooperation Department, both Departments under the Ministry of Planning.
Tsehai Alemayehu (PhD)
Member
Dr. Tsehai Alemayehu is a retired academic and public servant who lives in Atlanta, Georgia. He was born in Debre Elias and attended grade school there before he moved to Debre Markos to attend Nigus Tekle Haimanot School for grades 5 to 11. He completed the 12th grade in the Prince Beide Mariam Lab School on the HSI University campus. He considers his teaching at Savannah State University to be his primary legacy, but he has also served in leadership roles at several noteworthy institutions of higher learning and in government
Abiyu Berlie
Member
Abiyu Berlie is an ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems) Expert and Consultant. He has 30 years of experience in the ITS field; and has been active for several years in ITS knowledge and technology transfer to Africa, particularly to Ethiopia. He first introduced ITS in Ethiopia. Abiyu worked in the NYCMTA (New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority) for over 25 years, until he retired in 2015 and focused on consultancy services.
Yohannes Truneh (PhD)
Member
Dr. Yohannes Truneh was born at Debre Markos, Gojjam . He got his elementary education is at Bichena and high school up to grade 11 at Nigus Teklehaimanot secondary school, Debre Markos. He studied grade twelve at Prince Beide Mariam laboratory school in Addis Ababa and then got a BSc degree in Mathematics from Haile Selassie I University. He received his masters in mathematics from Cranfield Institute of Technology, in England and Ph.D. in numerical analysis from Imperial college of the university of London.
Atsede Wudineh
Member
Aregu Balleh Wondimuneh. Originally from Debremarkos, Gojjam, He currently lives in Atlanta Georgia. He has MSc. degree in Environmental
Science. He also graduated in Foreign Languages and Literature from Addis Ababa University majoring in English and French languages.
He has 15 years of experience as a journalist. Until he left his home country for the US, he was
Editor-In -Chief of the Ethiopian Herald, Aregu has also a brief experience working as a high school English language teacher. Aregu has specialized in
science reporting and has received certification from the Canada based
World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ). .
Fekadu Kassie (PhD)
Member
Dr. Fekadu Kassie was born at a small rural town Yejube, Gojjam, and went to school at Yejube elementary school, Negus Tekle Haimanot junior-high and Debre Markos comprehensive and senior high school. Subsequently, he studied Veterinary Medicine at Debre Zeit Veterinary School, Addis Ababa university, and Cancer Biology at the University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, and obtained Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM), and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees, respectively.
Worku Tegegne Feleke
Member
Worku Tegegne Feleke was born in Debre Markos Gojjam in 1964. He graduated as a medical lab technologist at Jimma University and Master’s in Public Health at Maseno university Kisumu, Kenya. I have more than 20 years experience working in the healthcare system as well as teaching. He is currently working as a Medical Technologist at the University of Chicago Medicine. I am Married to my wonderful wife, Aberash Golija and live with my four children here in Chicago.
Girma Mekonnen (MD)
Member
Dr. Girma Mekonnen works as a Family Physician in Toronto, Canada since Sep. 2007. He has also been working with various research and community-based projects at the University of Toronto, Center for Addiction and Mental Health, and Toronto Public Health, Canada. He served as a general practitioner, hospital director, and health programs team leader in various parts of Ethiopia for over 6 years before moving to Canada.
Melaku Chekol
Member
When human beings experience severe knee pain or a burn in life, one of Melaku’s greatest passions is to be a part of healing those individuals, by repairing or restoring patients' damaged tissues or organs using their own cells. Melaku Chekol joined a lifesaving biotech company, Vericel in 2007. Beginning his career as a Senior Technician, he served as a Manufacturing Associate and Senior Associate at Vericel.
Leul Kebede
Member
Leul Kebede is a Microsoft Certified IT professional, practicing as a private contractor. Leul has many years of experience working for private companies in different positions and responsibilities, including as Operations Manager at the Parking Management Inc. (PMI) for 9 years, and also for almost 11 years with Penn Parking Inc.
Assefa Ayalew (MD)
Member
Dr. Assefa Ayalew works at Suburban Imaging/Midwest Radiology with emphasis on Body and Oncology Imaging. He went to medical school at Mayo Clinic School of Medicine, Diagnostic Radiology residency training at Mayo Clinic and had a fellowship subspecialty training at Johns Hopkins Hospital.