Leading for CHANGE
By Kerry Ludlam
E
ven over the phone, Lemlem Beza’s intensity comes through clearly. She’s a student, a scientist, a leader, a mother—all at the same time—and you wonder how she manages it. Then, as the conversation progresses, you realize that heartbreak can be a powerful motivator—something Beza knows well. “My elder sister bled to death after giving birth,” Beza says. “That moment made me decide that I was going to work in the medical field to help my family and my country.” Beza was in eighth grade when her sister died. One of 17 siblings, she grew up in Fiche, a remote central Ethiopian village 120 kilometers from Addis Ababa, where she now lives. Now a nurse clinician in the emergency department at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital (TASH) in Addis Ababa, Beza also mentors and teaches postgraduate students at the bedside. She spends two days of the workweek performing her clinical duties and teaches one day a week. She reserves the remaining two days for her work in the Emory-Addis Ababa University (AAU) PhD in Nursing Program. “I have a hectic and crowded schedule, but that is what it takes at this point,” she says.
Ethiopia's storied monument to the Lion of Judah stands a few blocks from TikurAnbessa Specialized Hospital in downtown Addis Ababa.
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