The Value of Inclusion and Diversity in the Workplace: Salem Mengistu discusses why inclusion and diversity are so important at work and in our communities

Salem Mengistu has been committed to supporting HIV/AIDS testing, care, and public policy since early in her career. “I started at a small non-profit, doing HIV testing and counseling and it was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done in my life. I was young and giving someone a positive test was heart wrenching. In grad school, I became increasingly interested in how funding was allocated and targets determined. It was very eye opening to see how policies could influence funding and what was needed to get funding to small, local organizations.”

Her career has taken her back to Ethiopia on several occasions—and all over the United States—before moving back to Washington, DC. The draw to be part of a diverse community making strides in global health—like the one at USAID’s Bureau for Global Health—was strong. “I have to be in an organization that embraces diversity, inclusion, belonging, everything around DEIA—I knew that was important for me,” she explains.

After immigrating from Ethiopia as a child, Salem often found herself needing to educate people on what it means to be from Africa after experiencing some “shocking and eye-opening questions while attending boarding school in the middle of Kentucky.”

“That experience was a struggle, and it is still a struggle to find a balance between two cultures and trying to find a balance of where I fit in. For me, especially right now in my career, being around groups of people that understand the world the same way that I do and don’t have narrow perspective is very important to me,” Salem explains.

“Bridging that gap of working in the U.S., getting my education here, and then going back [to Ethiopia] and trying to implement what I’d learned was an interesting experience.“ Salem supports health education at a women’s shelter in Ethiopia in her free time, “a three month long project that extended to nine years because I love it and I love the women and children that I work with.”

The GHTASC program analyst supports the Budget and Operations Division at the Office of HIV/AIDS and is steadily involved in OHA’s Anti-Racism and DEIA work. “In previous roles, I’d started working in DEIA but I didn’t get a chance to dive in and really work on processes and learn how to embed that into every aspect of the job which is what I’ve experienced working at USAID. In particular, working under Tamara Cox and Tiwanna DeMoss-Norman has been very eye-opening, and important for creating an environment that ensures people at USAID feel accepted and understand how we can do better.”

“Climbing the career ladder is not the only thing that’s important to me. That’s not why I studied public health and I really want that impact to trickle down, even if it’s just to one person. I really do believe that the work that we do changes lives and makes a difference.”