Rahel Bekele Teklegiorgis, Ethiopia

Curriculum Vitae

A former OeAD scholarship holder, Rahel Bekele Teklegiorgis is the principal investigator and leader of the APPEAR project entitled "Technology Enabled Maternal and Child Health Care (TEMACC-Ethiopia)". She is currently an associate professor at the School of Information Science, College of Natural Sciences, Addis Ababa University (AAU). She obtained in 2005 her Dr. rer. nat. in Computer Science from the Department of Informatics, University of Hamburg. Master of Science Degree in Information Science from AAU in 1992 and Bachelor of Science Degree in Statistics from AAU in 1988. Since her employment in 1988 as a Graduate Assistant, she has been working at AAU in various academic positions. In addition to teaching, she has also served in key management positions - Dean of School of Information Science (February 2010 to May 2012); Director of the ICT development Office (January to June 2011); Chair of the Department of Information Science (April 2006 to Feb. 2008 & July 1998 to Dec 2001). Dr. Rahel Bekele Teklegiorgis has a wide ranging research and consultancy experience within and outside of the country: Amongst her main engagements of research and consultancy outside AAU are: at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in gender related matters, at the Nile Basin Initiative in Knowledge Management and eLearning, at UNICEF in Development of Health Extension Program Database. Since 2010 She has been actively engaged in mobile health projects for maternal and child health programs. In particular, she has coordinated the activities of the technical team for the pilot project initiative by the Clinton Health Access Initiative to develop automated messaging system for expecting mothers. She was also involved in a research project of the World Bank in relation to mobile phone-based information exchange for maternal and child healthcare.

Reflection

The short term program of the International Women’s University (IFU) organized in the year 2000 in Germany, opened a new chapter in my professional life. At IFU, I met Professor Christiane Floyd (Austrian). Since then she has been my mentor and guide in both my professional and personal life. Her kindness, charity and love have been very inspirational and supportive. Through her, it was possible to create a professional collaboration with Johannes Kepler University of Linz, in Austria. From my visit of 2010 as a guest researcher at Johannes Kepler University of Linz, I worked with, and learnt a lot from, Professor Gustav Pomberger at the Department of Software Engineering. Our ongoing academic discussions which also involved Professor Floyd and Dr. Tesfaye Biru, on possible collaborations in the area of ICT for Development have been instrumental for the conception and development of the TEMACC initiative. With funding and support from APPEAR, this initiative has developed into a full-fledged research and development project between Addis Ababa University and the Johannes Kepler University of Linz. With this project and its outcomes, we hope to realize the potentials of ICT to positively impact the lives of rural women in Ethiopia.