Dr. Assaye Kassie Nigussie, is a Medical Doctor and a qualified Pediatrician from Ethiopia. Dr. Nigussie has over 30 years of experience in Pediatric Medicine and Neonatology, initially as a clinical instructor, practicing physician and Newborn and Child health researcher, and later as program manager for health programs focusing on Maternal, Neonatal, Child health and health systems. He brings both specific newborn expertise and a wealth of program implementation experiences across the MNCH continuum in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, in both Asia and African regions.

Dr. Nigussie, in his professional expert role, has served on many advisory groups for International Pediatric Association, the World Health Organization, issuing global guidelines and protocols to countries, including the Integrated Management of Newborns and Childhood Illness, Every Newborn Action Plan and the PSBI global guideline. As an international professional, he served in several global MNCH leadership positions, in the capacity of being, Chief of Health and Nutrition section, UNICEF, Zimbabwe office and as Deputy Director, MNCH country implementation, global development division at the Bill &Melinda Gates foundation, Seattle, USA.

He is currently an adjunct professor of pediatrics at Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia and a visiting scientist with Harvard T. Chan, School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, Boston, USA to primarily support the postdoc MNCH research fellowship program in Ethiopia.