Derege Kebede

Derege Kebede is Professor of Epidemiology (Adjunct) at the School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University. Between Jan 2017 to Dec 2019, he was Visiting Professor at the Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (JHSPH). His professional background is in medicine, epidemiology and public health. He has worked at the World Health Organization, Regional Office for Africa for over 13 years (2003-2017), where he coordinated WHO’s work to improve the availability and use of health information and knowledge for policy dialogue, and for monitoring health situation and trends. He also organized the establishment of the African Health Observatory in 2010, which he managed until the end of January 2017.

Before joining WHO in July 2003, he worked at Addis Ababa University for over ten years, as faculty and later as chairman of the Department of Community Health and as Professor of Epidemiology and Public health. He has also contributed to the strengthening of the Ethiopian Public Health Association, as a founding member, as its president, and as Editor-in-Chief of its scholarly journal: the Ethiopian Journal of Health Development. He also co-founded the Butajira-Ethiopia Long-term Follow-up Study on Major Mental Disorders.

He holds the Degree of Doctor of Medicine from Addis Ababa University and the degrees of Master of Science and Doctor of Science in epidemiology from Harvard University. He has published more than 125 papers and technical monographs and authored 7 books on physical, mental and reproductive health and disease in Amharic. He is a fellow of the African Science Institute, an associate fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences, a recipient of a health research award from the Ethiopian Public Health Association, and a mental health research award from the Stanley Foundation.