Lia Gebremedhin

Lia Tadesse Gebremedhin is executive director of the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program. An obstetrician and gynecologist, Gebremedhin previously served as minister of health of Ethiopia, where she spearheaded the national COVID pandemic response, approaching the pandemic as an opportunity to build health system resilience, including significantly increasing national oxygen and critical care capacity and launching the first vaccine manufacturing initiative for the country. She was program director at the University of Michigan’s Center for International Reproductive Health Training, project director of USAID’s Maternal and Child Survival Program at Jhpiego-Ethiopia, and CEO and vice provost of St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College in Addis Ababa. Gebremedhin was co-chair of the COVAX AMC Engagement Group and the Global Financing Facility Investors Group, was vice board chair of the Africa CDC, and serves on the Lancet Commission of Investing in Health.