Seble Lemma Frehywot, MD, MHSA

Seble Lemma Frehywot is Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Health Policy and the Department of Global Health.

• Phone: (202) 530-2354
• Fax: (202) 296-0025
• Email: seblelf@gwu.edu

Whether she is working in Asia, Africa or the United States, Dr. Seble brings in-depth knowledge of medicine, health systems and health policy to the challenges of building the health workforce and improving care to mothers and children. Her areas of current interest are health workforce and health systems development in low-resource countries, and the use of the African medical Diaspora in health infrastructure development to expand in-country clinical training and policy analysis and research.

Since joining SPHHS in 2007, Dr. Seble has been conducting research on the African health workforce, particularly on the capacities of non-physician clinicians and community health workers. As a core technical team member of a WHO project based in the Department of Health Policy, she is helping to develop a regulatory framework for "task-shifting" HIV/AIDS-related health-services. In that capacity, she is reviewing existing laws and guidelines in the seven nations supported by the President's Plan for Emergency AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) - six in Africa, one in the Caribbean. Dr. Seble also initiated a capacity-building program for Ethiopia at SPHHS, where she is working with colleagues to create a certificate and MPH program in health policy analysis.

In prior positions, Dr. Seble provided technical HIV-related expertise to the Ethiopian government and conducted research and policy analysis on developmental delay disorders in children for the National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the CDC. A true internationalist, Dr. Seble earned her medical degree in India and worked in a rural health care center in Najafgar, where she managed the TB and malaria clinic and conducted infectious disease research.

Education

Doctor of Medicine, Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi, India, 1988
Master of Health Service Administration (Health Policy Analysis, Health Services Program Management), The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, 2004

Teaching

PubH 322: Comparative Health Systems and Policy, Department of Global Health

Research

Dr. Seble's research focuses on health human resources and health systems development in developing countries, especially Africa.

Community Service

Dr. Seble is a member of the American Association of University Women and the Medical Council of India, and a member of GW's Africa Center for Health and Human Security's Technical Advisory Board.

Publications

• Non-physician clinicians in forty-seven sub-Saharan African countries.
  Mullan F, Frehywot S. Non-physician clinicians in forty-seven sub-Saharan African countries. Lancet 2007 June;69.
• National HIV/AIDS advocacy framework and guideline for Ethiopia: Federal HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office
  The Federal Ministry of Health Ethiopia and the Center for Disease Control (CDC). National HIV/AIDS advocacy framework and guideline for Ethiopia: Federal HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; 2005.