Team

Dr. Merga Dheresa

Head of HDSS

Merga Dheresa, an associate professor of maternal and child health, earned his PhD in Public Health (Maternal and Child Health) from Haramaya University in 2018, his MPH in Reproductive Health from Haramaya University in 2010.

Merga Dheresa, an associate professor of maternal and child health, earned his PhD in Public Health (Maternal and Child Health) from Haramaya University in 2018, his MPH in Reproductive Health from Haramaya University in 2010. In addition to the health field, he received his MBA degree in leadership from Lead Star College/Ashland University in 2018. He has been working at Haramaya University since 2006, with different academic ranks. He has immense experience in quantitative and qualitative research methods and leads community-based longitudinal research. Merga has been actively involved in research work and has won more than 19 national and international research grants and projects. He has published more than 100 papers on reputable-peer reviewed journals. His research work focuses on reproductive health, Maternal health, child health, adolescent health, family planning, morbidity, mortality, and Nutrition. He has advised more than 120 MSC and MPH students, and 10 PHD students. Moreover, he directly participates in health system and program activities: he lead Harari region HIV/AIDS mentorship program at health facilities; he is also working with the Ministry of health in the post, including national health system innovation Think-tank member, senior researcher for burdon of disease t EPHI, and team for Immunization Program Evaluation ResearchOromia regional coordinators for Performance Monitoring for Action longitudinal research on maternal and child health. Furthermore, I am Honorary/Adjunct Associate professor for Addis continetal institute of public health, and Wollega University He assumes the leadership position, currently, he leads the Hararghe (Kersa) Health and Demographic Surveillance System, which is the largest HDSS in Africa. Merga is a member of different professional associations, including Ethiopian Public Health Association, the International Continence Society, and the Ethiopian Nursing Association. He serves as an Editorial Board for East African Journal of Health and Biomedical Sciences, reviewer for journal, Co-chair for Midwifery association advisory council; Steering committee member for Ethiopian Obstetrics Surveillance System (EthOSS); Secretary for Think-tank group of Health and Medical Sciences College

Mr. Feyisa Abebe

Database Manager

Database Administrator at Hararghe Health and Demographic Surveillance System

A senior database and system administrator of hararghe HDSS

Mr.Gezahegn Mengesha

Assistant Head of HDSS

Gezahagn Mengesha is a senior statistician and the Assistant Head of the Hararghe Health and Demographic Surveillance System at Haramaya University since 2019.

Gezahegn Mengesha coordinates the management of data and statistical analysis at the Hararghe Health and Demographic Surveillance System, which serve as the location for the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance program. Gezahegn Mengesha supports information technology, data administration, and data analysis DSS investigations. collaborate with statisticians and epidemiologists from throughout the world. He also maintains data quality throughout all surveillance operations (such as data checks and audits) communicating and coordinating with local, national, and international partners as well as the CHAMPS team in Ethiopia.

Mr. Gemechu Asfaw

Data Analysist and Modeler

Gemechu Asfaw is a statistician at Hararghe Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS). He is earned his Master’s in Biostatistics from Haramaya University in 2023.

Gemechu Asfaw is a statistician at Hararghe Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS). Gemechu's educational background is in statistics and he specialized in a Master of Science in Biostatistics. He has skills in data analysis, such as longitudinal data, survival data, biostatistics, statistical modeling, and visualizing data. In addition to data analysis and modeling, he works as M & E officer. He also has skills in statistical software like R, STATA, SPSS, SAS, and MYSQL databases.

Mr.Aluwan Mohammed

Database Administrator

Aluwan Mohammed is a data manager at Hararghe Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS). He is earned his BSc in Computer Science from Ambo University in 2021.

Aluwan Mohammed is a data manager at Hararghe Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS). He has skills in data error correction, using query filter data from database upon request, editing, cleaning and update. He also has skills in MYSQL databases, JAVA, PHP, and PYTHON.

Mr. Tadesse Kebede

AI Engineer

Tadesse is an AI Engineer at the Hararghe Health and Demographic Surveillance System. He obtained his MSc in Computer Science from Haramaya University in 2021.

Sunior AI Engineer with a background in Computer Science. I am proficient in OOP programming, SQL, Python, and Bash. I am experienced in ETL, data visualization, preprocessing, data& analytics engineering, Deep Learning, Machine Learning, and developing an end-to-end data pipeline using Kafka, Airflow and Spark. He is a good team player with excellent communication, writing and research skills.

Miss. Hinsene Kaba

Monitoring, Evaluation and Validation

Hinsene Kaba is a statistician at the Hararghe Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS). She earned her B.Sc. in Statistics from Haramaya University in 2018.

Since 2023, she has been actively engaged in data quality management and monitoring and evaluation. Hinsene possesses advanced proficiency in statistical software, including STATA, R, and SPSS

Mr. Gamachis Daraje

Data Analysist and Modeler

Gamachis Daraje has been Senior Statistician of Hararghe Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) since 2017. He holds a degree in Statistics and a Master's in Biostatistics

Gamachis has advanced knowledge on different advanced statistical modelling and different statistical Software like R, STATA, SAS and SPSS as well as data base like MySQL. In addition, he is familiar with different geographic information system software like ArcGIS and QGIS. Moreover, he has been contributed in HDSS research work significantly particularly on data management and data analysis. Currently Gamachis working on Data analyst and Geospatial modeller.

Mr.Teferi Mokonnen

Site Coordinator

I am as statistician and site coordinator at Hararghe Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS). I am earned BA from DILLA University in 2017

He is a statistician and site coordinator at the Hararghe Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS). He has skills in data analysis, data quality, statistical modeling, and data visualization. In addition to data analysis and modeling, he works as an M&E officer. He has skills in statistical software such as R, STATA, SPSS, SAS, and MySQL databases.