Meet the Co-Chairs of ASLM2021!

Dr Yenew Kebede Tebeje is a medical microbiologist and public health expert with over 20 years of clinical, teaching, laboratory science, research, capacity building, and programme design and management experience. Dr Kebede currently serves as Head of Laboratory Systems at Africa CDC, where he leads programmes to strengthen public health laboratory systems and networks in all 55 Member States in Africa. His achievements include building laboratory systems in low-income countries, developing human resource capacity, and developing policy frameworks and guidelines that impact laboratory programmes in Africa. Before Africa CDC, Dr Kebede worked for more than 12 years as Technical Officer and later as Branch Chief for Laboratory at US CDC in Ethiopia. He also worked as an assistant professor and Head of Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology at the University of Gondar, Ethiopia.

Associate Professor Haja Isatta Wurie is an experienced senior public health and clinical laboratory advisor with a demonstrated history of working in government agencies, non-profit organisations and the private management industry. She is Senior Lecturer, Head of Chemical Pathology Department, and Laboratory Science Coordinator at the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences, University of Sierra Leone. Assoc Prof Wurie helped create Sierra Leone’s National Laboratory Policy and Strategic Plan. Before this, she was Director of Laboratory Services at RAMSY Medical Laboratories for 22 years. Assoc Prof Wurie has provided leadership and technical support for medical laboratory systems in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Sierra Leone. She currently provides support as a member of the West African Health Organisation five-person expert technical workstream and co-chair of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Group for Emergencies in Sierra Leone. She is skilled in nonprofit organisations, clinical research, epidemiology, programme evaluation and capacity building.