The Susan Thompson Buffet Foundation

Dr. Senait Fisseha, Director of International Programmes

Dr. Senait Fisseha, M.D., J.D. serves as a Director of Ethio-American Doctors Group, Inc. Dr. Fisseha is the Director of International Programs at the Buffett Foundation, where she has unparalleled opportunity to shape and impact global reproductive health. She remains a Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology of the division of Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility and at the Center for Reproductive Medicine at the University of Michigan. With her special interest in reproductive and maternal health, global health, ethics and law, Dr. Fisseha combines her legal and medical background into a unique combination of special expertise.

Dr. Fisseha has received funding from NIH for research in fertility preservation for cancer patients, as well as US government, non-government agencies and foundations to develop a global health research and training collaboration in Ethiopia. Until recently, Dr. Fisseha led the University of Michigan-Ethiopia Collaborative Platform for Global Health since its inception. She quickly and efficiently guided the University’s early global initiatives efforts in Ethiopia which encompass a partnership with the ministry of health to support the New Medical Education Initiative and a twinning partnership with St. Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College in Addis Ababa, including a broader collaboration with AAU & AAIT. Ethiopian Ministry of health honored Dr. Fisseha in 2013 by giving her the Ministry of Health’s Highest Award given in recognition of profound contribution to the health sector. Dr. Fisseha is the founding Executive Director of the Center for International Reproductive Health Training (CIRHT), at the time a new centre at the University of Michigan established with a $25 million grant to advance global reproductive health pre-service training in academic institutions in Sub Saharan Africa and South East Asia with the highest burden of maternal mortality.