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— Who we are

She Never Called Herself a Leader.She Just Led.

Everything CALS believes about leadership started with one woman raising six children through famine and war — with no title, no resources, and no choice but to lead anyway.

"Everything rises and falls with leadership."

The sermon that redirected a life, 2000

— Who we are

The Founding Story Behind Every Program We Run

In the 1980s, Ethiopia’s communist regime imprisoned Tewodros Tadesse Araya‘s father. His mother was left to raise six children through famine and civil war — with no title, no resources, no safety net. She didn’t call what she did leadership. She simply got up every day and did what had to be done.

Tewodros never forgot that.

"It wasn't a new idea to him — it was a description of his mother."

In 2000, he heard a sermon that finally gave language to what he’d witnessed his entire childhood. From that moment, he committed to one conviction: that Africa’s transformation would not come from imported models or foreign experts, but from leaders forged by exactly the kind of circumstances he grew up in.

In 2012, that conviction became the Center for African Leadership Studies. Not a copy of a Western institution. An answer built from Ethiopian experience, for African realities.

— VISION, MISSION & VALUES

Our Vision

To raise a transformed and responsible generation of leaders committed to serving their country and contributing to the revitalization of Africa.

Our Mission

To hasten and empower that future by equipping leaders who advance that vision wherever they are — in government, education, health, business, manufacturing, service, nonprofit, religion, sports, or any other sector.

Transformation

Innovation

Accountability

Diversity

Excellence

— Who we are Today

The Founding Story Behind Every Program We Run

Most institutions grow more confident as they grow larger. We’ve tried to grow more humble. A leader who believes they have nothing left to learn has stopped growing — and we’ve built CALS to model the posture we teach, not just preach it.

We started with one person. Today we are a team working across English, Amharic, Tigrigna, and Afaan Oromo — because leadership development that ignores language and culture isn’t really leadership development at all.

— Our Approach

We Don't Walk in With Answers. We Walk in With Honest Questions.

Every CALS engagement starts the same way: not with a curriculum, but with an honest look at what’s actually happening inside an organization’s leadership culture. From there, we challenge — surfacing the gap between where a team is and where the moment demands they be. And throughout, we support, because growth that isn’t sustained isn’t really growth.Our coaching itself is rooted in something older than any management theory: the Ethiopian coffee ceremony. A space built for trust, for unhurried conversation, for genuine human connection. We didn’t import this model. We built on what was already ours.

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— Founder & CEO, CALS

Tewodros Tadesse Araya

Tewodros built his understanding of leadership watching his mother lead a family of eight through famine and war — long before he had a title for what she was doing. Today he is an executive leader, CCL-certified coach, 360-degree feedback facilitator, and founding member of Social Enterprise Ethiopia. He has coached the top leadership of the UNDP since 2013, designed the African Union Commission’s youth leadership program, and guided CALS’s institutional reform work inside five Ethiopian government ministries. He is also an ordained Minister of the Word of God — a calling he doesn’t separate from his leadership work, but treats as its deepest root. He currently divides his time between Addis Ababa and Dedham, Massachusetts.

Our Impact

— LEADERSHIP TEAM

The People Who Carry the Work Forward

Annerie Ogutogullari

– COO

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Meskerem Yoseph

– CFO

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Azeb Weldeyesus

Accountant

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— Advisory Board

Guided by Voices Beyond Our Own

CALS is guided by a distinguished group of advisors whose expertise spans leadership, entrepreneurship, international development, and African affairs.

Lia Tadesse

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Dr. Wubrest Bekele

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Name

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Twelve Years In. The Hardest Work Is Still Ahead.

Explore our Programs
Read our SUCCESS STORIES

Lia Tadesse Gebremedhin

public health leader and physician

Lia Tadesse Gebremedhin is a public health leader and physician with 25 years of multi-disciplinary experience in government and non-governmental institutions, academia, and healthcare. She is currently a Professor of the Practice of Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Executive Director of the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program.  

Lia served as the Minister of Health of Ethiopia from March 2020 to February 2024 after serving as State Minister of Health from November 2018. As Minister, she spearheaded the national COVID pandemic response and helped her country navigate the pandemic with resilience. Before that, she served as Program Director at the University of Michigan’s Center for International Reproductive Health Training (CIRHT). She was also the Project Director of USAID’s Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP) at Jhpiego-Ethiopia and CEO and Vice Provost of St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College (SPHMMC) in Addis Ababa, where she led hospital service and academic reforms.

Lia is passionate about strengthening and reforming health systems and has received several recognitions for her accomplishments in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, advocating for gender equity, and access to quality health services and training. She has published over 40 articles, commentaries, and papers. 

During her tenure as Minister, Lia served as co-chair of the COVAX AMC Engagement Group, co-chair of the Global Financing Facility (GFF) Investors Group, Vice Chair of the Africa CDC, and a member of the Gavi Board and the WHO Executive Board. She has recently served as a Commissioner in the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health,

She currently serves on the board of Directors of JSI, Resolve to Save Lives, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. She also serves on various Advisory boards, including the Center for Global Health Equity at the University of Michigan, the Lancet Commission on Evidence-Based Implementation in Global Health, and the QuEST Network at Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health. She is also a Guest Editor for BMC Global and Public Health.

She earned her medical degree from Jimma University, specialty training in Obstetrics and Gynecology from Addis Ababa University, and a master’s degree in health care administration from Jimma University. She is married and a mother of three.

Dr. Wubrest Bekele

Dr. Wubrest Bekele is a physician and global health professional trained at the Yale School of Public Health, focused on advancing health systems innovation and equitable access in emerging markets. Her experience spans government, venture capital, biotech startups, and global health institutions. She previously served as Vice President of Medical Affairs at Syndicate Bio, where she helped launch one of Africa’s first clinical genomics programs for cancer testing and built partnerships with ministries of health across multiple countries. She has also worked with Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health and served as a public voice during COVID-19. As a co-founder of a health media platform, her work centers on strengthening health education and building more resilient, equitable health systems.