BOARD OF DIRECTORS
CHAIR - Hibst Melesse Nitkin, RN, BSN
Hibst Melesse Nitkin, RN, is the founding President of Inspire Ethiopia. Currently, she works for the Department of Health and Human Services as a community health nurse. She has over 20 years of experience as an Intensive Care Nurse and a Community Health Nurse in the US, Canada and Ethiopia. Hibst received a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Maryland, and a Nursing degree from Victoria General Hospital School of Nursing in Halifax, Canada. For over 10 years, she served as a volunteer at the Interfaith Works Women's Center in Rockville, MD, and the meals program for homeless women that she initiated at the Center is still running.
VICE CHAIR - Dr. Todd Nitkin
Dr. Todd Nitkin received his medical degree from Temple University and completed his surgical residency in the DC area including INOVA Fairfax Hospital and Georgetown University Hospital. He also received the Master of Public Health degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. During the past five years, he has been the President of the Potomac Bethesda Rotary Club.He has over 15 years of experience in public health project design, monitoring, evaluation, and research in the US, Africa, and other developing countries.
SECRETARY - Dr.Tigineh Mersha
Dr. Tigineh Mersha is a Professor of Management at the Merrick School of Business, University of Baltimore, USA. He received his BSC. degree from Addis Ababa University and his MBA and Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati in the USA. Professor Mersha served as chair of the Department of Management and International business in the Merrick School for 10 years before returning to a full-time faculty position in 2016. He has carried out management consultancies and training services in both Ethiopia and in the USA. Professor Mersha has published scholarly articles in several academic and practitioner journals.
TREASURER - Dr. Muluemebet Ketete
Dr. Muluemebet Ketete received her MD degree from the University of Havana. For the past four years, Muluemebet has been working as a Cardiovascular Research Scientist at BioTelemetry, Inc. in Maryland.
Until 2016, Dr. M. Ketete worked at Howard University as a Clinical Research Associate conducting various research projects sponsored by The National Institutes of Health and several pharmaceutical companies. Prior to immigrating to the USA, she practiced as an OBGYN for 10 years in Zewditu Memorial Hospital in Addis Ababa.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE - Dr. Nardos Minasse
Dr. Nardos Minasse is an established optometrist with over 25 years of experience, including eight years in Ethiopia. Nardos received her Doctor of Optometry degree from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry. Her special interest is in early detection, management, and prevention of vision-related problems. She has been serving as a volunteer in the detection, management, and prevention of visual disorders of children in schools, orphanages, neighborhoods, and community centers. To further enhance the early detection of vision-related learning problems, she has been educating teachers, parents, and other health care professionals about the nature of the problem and the availability of treatment.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE - Samson Saifu Dibabiey, CPP BA.
Mr. Saifu has years of experience in leading and managing large and complex teams to achieve organizational objectives through growing operational excellence. Samson started his own company, Elite Parking/Transportation LLC., and was its CEO for 20 years. He has also held several senior level positions including CMO for Visionary Policy Institute and Senior Vice President for Metropolitan Services Group. Samson retired a few years ago and has recently joined Inspire Ethiopia Board. His wealth of experience from private industry will surely be invaluable to our organization.