sponsors – EPPAD

Dr.Sarem is Protein biochemist with experience both in academic and biotech environments. Skilled in process of development for various biologics and GMP requirements. Proactive in initiating and fostering collaborations across different teams.

Eyerusalem Befkadu, PharmD, BCPS is an emergency medicine clinical specialist at Medstar Georgetown University Hospital. She has worked in a wide array of clinical areas working with physician groups to practice evidence-based medicine. In her current role, she practices as a pharmacist clinician providing safe and effective care of patients, primarily in the emergency department. She participates in quality improvement initiatives through the development of institutional clinical guidelines and protocols. She has also successfully implemented a naloxone dispensing program in the emergency department as part of an initiative to improve safe access and provision of life-saving medications.

Prior to her emergency medicine practice at Georgetown University Hospital, she practiced as an emergency medicine clinical pharmacist at Virginia Hospital Center. During her tenure, she established new emergency department clinical pharmacy services that include expanding the role of a pharmacist to participate in medical and trauma emergencies, pioneering a medication reconciliation program, implementing quality initiatives and conducting various research projects.

She received her Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the University of Maryland Baltimore county and her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Touro College of Pharmacy. She completed her Post Graduate Year One(PGY-1) pharmacy practice residency training at Howard University Hospital.

Helen HaileSelassie, PharmD, is a residency-trained and board-certified pharmacist with over 10 years of experience working in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry. In her current role as a clinical manager, she oversees the development of formulary submission documents for managed care decision makers in formulary and coverage evaluations to improve market access. She participates in health economics and outcomes research engagements and strategic planning throughout a product life cycle for commercialization of pharmaceutical products and medical device technologies in the global biopharmaceutical market. She also serves as a clinical resource for the implementation of medical, quality improvement, outcomes and market research activities within cross-functional teams.

In her previous role, she practiced as a clinical pharmacist and pharmacy leader, overseeing operational and clinical services for the safe delivery of pharmacy services in an institution-based setting. She has expertise in a wide array of clinical areas delivering patient care and maximizing therapeutic regimens, as well as developing clinical protocols for Pharmacy & Therapeutics committees using evidence-based medicine.

She also has experience writing and editing academic manuscripts for original research and review articles for publication in peer-reviewed journals. She continues to precept pharmacy students in her current work practice and is a fellowship advisor for research development.

She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a Doctor of Pharmacy degree and completed her Post Graduate Year One (PGY-1) pharmacy practice residency training. She was the recipient of the Phi Lambda Sigma Pharmacy Leadership Award. She is a member of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy and the Industry Pharmacists Organization.

Samuel Worku was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He graduated from Unity University College of Business Administration in 2008. Soon, after graduation, he worked for Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and later owned his own business of selling and installing satellite dish and equipment. In 2010, Samuel came to the United States and attended George Mason University in Fairfax, VA and received his bachelor’s degree double majored in Finance and Accounting. While he was attending George Mason University, Samuel was a member of Investment club of George Mason and The National Society of Collegiate Scholars where he learned a great deal of investment process and strategy, management of a sizable investment fund and overall portfolio risk/return characteristics.Samuel worked in various industries in the US from Government contractor, financial service institution, and nonprofit organization. Currently, he is working for Robert Half International as a financial consultant where he provides help to multiple companies in areas of budget analysis and forecasting, financial reporting, tax filing, audit, A/P and A/R process and more.

Dr. Eyob is a versatile Clinical Pharmacist with broad experience across academia, retail, hospital and research settings. He earned Bachelor of Pharmacy and Master of Science degree in Experimental Pharmacology at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia and Doctor of Pharmacy Degree from Howard University, Washington, DC, USA. He did his project entitled “Evaluation of anxiolytic effect of the essential oil of Myritus Communis in mice”. He won various grants to present the findings of his study work at different international conferences in different places in Africa, Europe and USA,

Right after he comes to the United States, He joined Howard University and started working in the chemo-informatics and drug design laboratory as a research fellow. During his stay in the Chemo-Informatics and drug design laboratory, he had been involved in the publication process of four different articles on the reputable journals in pharmaceutical science.

Before he joined the National Institute of Health (NIH), he used to work as Clinical Pharmacist in HIV Specialty Clinic and Behavioral health and addiction treatment center and CVS Care mark in Washington metropolitan area. Dr. Eyob served as a lecturer of Pharmacology for Medical, Pharmacy and Physician assistant students. he also worked as a research and community service team leader at DBU, Ethiopia. He is an active member of International Brain research organization (IBRO), Society of Neuroscientist (SONA), International Society of Psychiatric Genetics (ISPG) and American Pharmacist Association (APhA).

Pawlose Ketema, PharmD, BCPS, BCIDP, AAHIVP Antimicrobial Stewardship Pharmacist

Dr. Pawlose Ketema, is an Antimicrobial Stewardship pharmacist at the Washington DC VA Medical Center. He earned his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Howard University College of Pharmacy. Dr. Ketema then completed a PGY-1 Pharmacy residency at the Washington DC VA Medical Center followed by a PGY-2 residency in Infectious Diseases at Boston Medical Center. Dr. Ketema is a Board-Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist (BCPS), Board Certified Infectious Diseases Pharmacist (BCIDP), and an American Academy of HIV Pharmacist (AAHIVP). Prior to his current role, he practiced as an Infectious Diseases pharmacist at Northwest Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He has authored and presented his research at regional and national conferences, including ASHP, ACCP, Vizient, MAD-ID, and IDWeek. Dr. Ketema serves on the EPPAD board as an advisory member, co-leads EPPAD’s Educational Group, and is an associate editor of EPPAD’s Bulletin. His clinical areas of interest include managing resistant gram-negative infections, and implementation of rapid diagnostics to reduce time to appropriate antimicrobial therapy.

Dr. Tesfaye Biftu received his PhD from Brandeis University in chemistry and MBA from Rutgers University in management. After a brief career in academia, he first joined Merck and Co. as a medicinal chemist and later went to CytoMed Inc as a Senior Director of Medicinal Chemistry. Later, he returned back to Merck in where he served sequentially as a Distinguished Senior Investigator and Director of Discovery Chemistry. Dr. Biftu has published or presented over 70 manuscripts and book chapters and is an inventor or co-inventor of over 65 US and international patents in various areas of drug discovery in human and animal health including inflammation, cardiovascular diseases, thrombosis, obesity, metabolic disorders, anti-cancer agents and infectious diseases. He was the program lead and key innovator in the discovery of several drug candidates including Marizev™, the Once Weekly DPP-4 Inhibitor anti-diabetic agent, and key player in the Januvia™ project which has a total sales over 70 billion since its introduction in 2006. He managed external (US, China and India) and internal resources. Between 2009-2013, he lectured on various topics in Medicinal Chemistry and Therapeutics at Jefferson University, State University of New York, The Ohio state university, Italy, France, Sweden, Portugal and several others. Currently, he serves as a Professor and Director of the Institute of Therapeutic Science at Adama University and teaches courses and mentors PhD students in the Food and Nutrition department of Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.

Dr. Fekadu graduated from Addis Ababa University with a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree. He studied Natural Products Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Pharmacy where he obtained a Ph.D. degree. In 1992, he joined the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) in North Carolina as a post-doctoral chemist in natural product drug discovery program, where he rose to a Research Chemist III level. After a productive 4-year stint at RTI, he eventually joined St. Luke’s Hospital in Sioux City, Iowa as a clinical pharmacist. While he was there for 23 years, he was heavily involved in guiding the clinical research project of more than a dozen Postgraduate Year One (PGY1) post-Pharm.D. Residents over the years. He is an Associate Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences. He retired in 2020, but stays active in academic research, writing books and volunteering in pharmacy-related initiatives. In the course of his long career, he has produced over 175 publications, many of which are pharmacy-related. He is the author of eight books

Dr. Alex Akalu is a pharmacist-scientist with over 15 years of experience blending science, regulation, and technology. With a foundation in physics, he specializes in regulatory science, pediatric oncology, and applied artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare. He currently serves as a Senior Oncology Staff Fellow at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), leading data analysis, clinical research, and AI integration for the Division of Pediatric Oncology.
Dr. Akalu was instrumental in meeting FDA Reauthorization Act (FDARA) mandates by developing the Pediatric Molecular Target List, a globally utilized resource guiding pediatric cancer drug development. His contributions have shaped the review of numerous oncology drug applications (IND, NDA, BLA) and informed national regulatory strategies.
His peer-reviewed research, published in JAMA Oncology, Pediatric Blood & Cancer, The Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and The Journal of Clinical Oncology, explores pediatric extrapolation, dosage optimization, racial equity in clinical trials, and fusion oncoproteins.
Dr. Akalu advises on the ethical use of AI in regulatory science, facilitating the adoption of FDA’s internal AI chatbots and analytics tools for the pediatric division. He holds an advanced certification in AI in Healthcare from prestigious institutions, underscoring his dedication to transparent, responsible AI innovation.
As a board memberand Regulatory team chair of the Ethiopian Pharmacists and Pharmaceutical Scientists Association in Diaspora (EPPAD), Dr. Akalu mentors emerging scientists and advocates for robust regulatory systems in low- and middle-income countries. Driven by scientific rigor, equity, and global health impact, he continues to advance regulatory science and public health worldwide.

Gabriel Daniel (aka: Aklile G. Giorgis) is a development/pharmaceutical management systems and services specialist with over 40 years of global experience residing in the USA. His technical areas of expertise include pharmaceutical management, primary health care, HIV/AIDS, neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), micro-enterprise development, post-Ebola pharmaceutical systems recovery. Gabriel worked for over fifteen years as Principal Technical Advisor/Country Strategic Lead for pharmaceutical projects of management sciences for health (MSH), based in Arlington, Virginia, USA. Prior to joining MSH in 2002, Gabriel worked for over 20 years at Africare, International Rescue Committee (IRC) and International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC/Sudan Aid), where he provided leadership and technical assistance in community development, health and refugee/displaced persons programs in several African countries. Gabriel established the Sierra Leone and Ghana Africare country offices in 1986 and 1998 respectively and served as their resident country representative. Gabriel also established the Ethiopia MSH operations in 2003 which implemented the USAID funded PEPFAR HIV/AIDS and PMI malaria programs. In the early 1980s, Gabriel was a member of the team that designed and managed the IRC refugee relief, rehabilitation, and income generation projects in Eastern Sudan. His work in Ethiopia in the late 1970s included representing the Ethiopian government in high-level technical delegations to over a dozen European countries and China; heading a hospital pharmacy; and reorganizing the national pharmaceutical supply system; as well as practice in private pharmacies. He has served on expert panels of the United States Pharmacopea (USP) and as a member of the non-government development organizations (NGDOs) involved in river blindness management; authored several papers on various topics; published a four-language phrase book; and conducted several project designs, implementations, evaluations and developed health related training manuals. Gabriel has traveled and provided technical assistance to over twenty countries in Africa and Asia. Gabriel holds a BPharm degree from the School of Pharmacy from the then Haile Selassie I University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and a Masters in International Administration (MIA) degree from the School for International Training (SIT) in Brattleboro, Vermont/USA.

Dr. Bisrat Hailemeskel is a full-time faculty member at the rank of Full Professor & Co-Director of International Grant in the College of Pharmacy, Howard University. He received his Bachelor of Pharmacy and Master of Science Degrees from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia and Doctor of Pharmacy Degree from the University of Toledo, Ohio. He served as a clinical pharmacist at various institutions before joining Howard. Dr. Hailemeskel came to Howard in July 1997 and then received his tenureship in 2003. Dr. Hailemeskel has received numerous research grants from government and non-government institutions. Dr. Hailemeskel was the recipient of the 2007 -2008 Fulbright Scholarship as a teacher/research fellow, a distinguished award from the US Department of States, to teach and conduct research in Africa. As a principle Investigator, he has also received over a million dollars grant for the “Howard-Addis Ababa University Twinning Partnership” project to promote pharmaceutical care education in Ethiopia through a grant from the American International Health Alliance and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Dr. Hailemeskel awarded to become a Fulbright Visiting Professor by the US State Department since 2014. In 2010, he was also received the “Outstanding Faculty” Award from Howard University Alumni Association. Dr. Hailemeskel has over 50 research papers published in peer-reviewed journals. He has also over 100 invited presentations, abstracts, and posters presentations at major local, national, and international scientific professional associations. Dr. Hailemeskel served as a secretary and Executive Committee member of the Ethiopian North America Health Professionals Association (ENAHPA) from 2005-2008. He was the founder and past president of the Ethiopian Pharmacists Association in North America. He also appointed 2003-2005 Research Fellow by the Center for Minority Health Services Research (CMHSR), funded by AHRQ.

Raniya Ali Al-Matari was born in the United States to a Yemini father and Ethiopian mother and raised in the Middle East capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh. She attendant various international schools in Saudi Arabia where, she met students and colleagues from around the globe. Her curiosity, and willingness to befriend and communicate effectively with her new-found friends, allowed her to eventually learn and become fluent in the five different languages of English, Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya, and Urdu.

After graduating from high school, she moved to Jordan to study pharmacy at Jordan University of Science and technology and completed her degree in 2008. She moved to Alexandria, Virginia, so that she could pursue a Ph.D. degree in Pharmacy Administration. Shecompleted her Dissertation entitled Development and Validation of an Amharic version Simplified Medication Adherence Questionnaire and its use in the assessment of medication adherence predictors among persons of Ethiopian descent. Additionally, Raniya was a Research & Teaching Assistant, a member of the Howard University, Student Chapter of American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), and a member of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics & Outreach (ISPOR). Raniya is a Board-Certified Pharmacist in Saudi Arabia and Board-Certified Pharmacy Technician in the US. She was the recipient of the Chauncey Ira Cooper Scholarship from the Howard University Alumni Association, and the Mordecai Wyatt Johnson Award from the Howard University’s, Donor Scholarship. She is currently teaching at Howard University as a Biostatistics instructor to the freshman and sophomore students in the National Workforce Pipeline Program. She also works in different projects using several secondary analyses. She’s research interests include pharmacoepidemiology, health outcome research, and secondary data analysis.

Ermias Tilahun, MPH, PhD., brings over 15 years of experience in epidemiology, clinical research, and public health, academia, clinical healthcare, the pharmaceutical industry, non-profit organizations, and regulatory settings. Currently serving as an Epidemiologist at the FDA, he specializes in research methodology, clinical research management, data analysis, and public health education.

With a Ph.D. in Pharmacoepidemiology, a Master’s in Public Health (MPH), a B.Sc. in Physician Assistant Studies, and a Diploma in Crisis Management and Post-Conflict Rehabilitation, Dr. Ermias combines a strong academic foundation with hands-on expertise in drug safety, surveillance, and health outcomes research.

At the FDA’s Office of Pharmacovigilance and Epidemiology (OPE), he supported drug safety evaluations, assessing efficacy, nonmedical use, and reproductive health outcomes. Prior to this, as a Scientist at Pfizer, Dr. Ermias developed a manuscript and analysis plan for a claims-based study using National Inpatient Survey (NIS) data and managed a global bacterial serotype distribution database for Invasive Pneumococcal Disease (IPD) surveillance. His earlier research at Howard University focused on survey design and data analysis to evaluate Medicare beneficiaries’ awareness of pharmacist-provided Medication Therapy Management (PP-MTM) services.

Beyond research, Dr. Ermias is actively involved in mentorship, education, and professional leadership, having served as a educator, Pharmacovigilance adviser, and association leader. With expertise in curriculum development, quantitative and qualitative research, survey design, literature review, and biostatistical analysis, he contributes valuable insights to the field of clinical research, pharmacoepidemiology, pharmacovigilance, and public health.

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