Tulane Professor Honored by Ethiopian Health Ministry
Dr. Wuleta Lemma has been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by the Federal Ministry of Health of Ethiopia at their 18th Annual National Health Meeting, held in Hawassa, Ethiopia.
Dr. Lemma is director of Center for Global Health Equity at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. A clinical associate professor in the Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences, she has spent the past 25 years working on HIV/AIDS, malaria, maternal and child health, and communicable diseases in more than 20 countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and Europe.
Working with the Federal Ministry of Health in Ethiopia on programs to build capacity in Ethiopia, Dr. Lemma lead the effort to design and deploy electronic and mobile health solutions to improve health monitoring and patient care in the country’s resource-limited settings. She was also instrumental in launching the MSc in monitoring and evaluation of health at Jimma University, the MSc in Biostatistics/Health Informatics at Mekele University, and the health informatic technician diploma program in 21 health colleges where more than 3,000 young people have graduated so far. Over the past four years, has worked with both the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education to implement an innovative four-year medical curriculum in Ethiopia.
“As the old proverb goes ‘You can't clap with one hand only,’" said Dr. Lemma in sharing the honor with Tulane colleagues. She highlighted the assistance that Tulane’s technology department provided in delivering 20,000 tablets to medical students in Ethiopia, and paid particular thanks to Dr. Carl Kendall, who brought her to Tulane, and Tulane Ethiopian and Tulane colleagues who were instrumental in the implementation of various programs in Ethiopia. In particular, she appreciates the strong collaboration with FIOCRUZ Brazil. Dr. Lemma worked with Professor Elizabeth Moreira dos Santos, and together they made the "South-to-South" partnership between these two countries possible.
