Zelalem has a PhD in economics from the University of Liverpool and his PhD research was largely multidisciplinary involving people from various academic fields. His PhD research focused on evaluating farmers’ preferences and willingness to pay for animal health technologies and breeding services in Ethiopia where he was a graduate research fellow at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). His research aimed at informing market based agricultural policies to address farmers’ access to animal health and breeding extension services, a missing market. After his PhD (2015), he worked with International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and other institutes in Ethiopia as a programme evaluation consultant and researcher. He was also a visiting lecturer at Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia) until he joined the university as full time academic staff in January, 2017. At Addis Ababa university he taught quantitative research methods including impact evaluation methods.
Research
Zelalem is currently conducting health economics researches that will inform the design and development appropriate interventions to protect lung health and improve effective, and equitable access to curative and preventive health services for lung disease and tuberculosis in collaboration with colleagues in IMPALA Programme. Particularly, he is interested in understanding and measuring the (health and economic) impacts of lung diseases and TB and cost-effectiveness of interventions to address these diseases in resource poor settings.