2021 Distinguished Alumni Awards: Distinguished Alumna
Dr. Senait T. Fisseha ’99 — School of Medicine
Professor Senait Fisseha is a globally recognized leader in reproductive health and rights and a lifelong gender champion. Trained as an attorney and a physician, her ability to bring the advocacy, practitioner, and policymaking communities together and build broad coalitions of support has fundamentally shifted the global conversation around access to safe, legal, and affordable sexual and reproductive health services across the globe. Her contributions, especially in Ethiopia through her leadership at the Center for International Reproductive Health Training, has been instrumental to the advancement of reproductive health education and gender equality. It has set a high standard for prioritizing and advocating for women’s health and leadership for countries throughout the region and around the world.
She was named as one of the 100 Most Influential Africans for 2018 by New African magazine and one of the 100 Most Influential People in Gender Policy in 2019 and top forty most forward-thinking women in 2020 by Athena40.
Professor Fisseha currently serves as the Director of Global Programs at the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, as well as Chief Advisor to the Director General of the World Health Organization. A reproductive endocrinology specialist, prior to these roles, Dr. Fisseha was the Chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility at the University of Michigan, Medical Director of University of Michigan’s Center for Reproductive Medicine and founding Executive Director of the Center for International Reproductive Health Training (CIRHT). While at Michigan, she also co-directed the Medical School’s Path of Excellence in Global Health & Disparities. As leader of the U-M-Ethiopia Collaborative Platform for Global Health, she helped Michigan forge strong partnerships with Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health and the St. Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College in Addis Ababa.
She was born in Ethiopia and earned an undergraduate degree from Rosary College in River Forest, Illinois, M.D. and J.D. degrees from Southern Illinois University, and a certificate in International Human Rights and Comparative Law from the University of Oxford. She has received numerous awards including the recognition of her transformative contribution to the Ethiopian Health Sector by the Nobel Peace Prize Winner Ethiopian Prime Ministry in 2019, Ethiopian Ministry of Health’s highest award, the University of Michigan’s Bicentennial Alumni Award and the 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.
The SIU Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Awards have been recognizing notable SIU Carbondale alumni for over 20 years. Former recipients include leaders in the business industry, famous actors, and world-class athletes. For more information about the program please visit: SIUAlumni.com
