Kellogg Eye Center Team Returns to Ethiopia to Strengthen Longstanding Partnership

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A team from the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center recently visited longtime collaborators in Ethiopia for the first time in more than five years. Led by Christine Nelson, MD, FACS, Professor of Eye Plastics and Orbital Surgery, the group spent more than a week at St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College in Addis Ababa. Kellogg Eye Center faculty have collaborated with St. Paul’s since 2014 and helped establish the institution’s ophthalmology department in 2015.

The recent visit marked the first post-pandemic trip to Ethiopia, and Dr. Nelson was impressed by the tremendous growth of the St. Paul’s Department of Ophthalmology — both in size and skill. “It was really great to be able to go back. So much has improved,” said Nelson. “Our friends there who had been just starting their careers in subspecialties have really made tremendous progress in the intervening years.”

When the collaboration began, the department had just three ophthalmology faculty members. Today, it includes 15 physicians, including pediatric, retina, glaucoma, and plastics specialists. The ophthalmology residency program, launched in partnership with Kellogg Eye Center, has now graduated 36 providers. Many remain in Addis Ababa, while others are expanding ophthalmic services across Ethiopia.

Also part of the delegation were Cameron Yang, MD, UMMS oculoplastics surgery fellow; Nathan Shenkute, MD, Kellogg resident, and Dane Slentz, MD, former KEC oculoplastics fellow. The visit was not only an opportunity to celebrate progress but also to help advance new areas of collaboration, including expanded eye bank services and ophthalmic nursing training.

The team met with leaders from St. Paul’s and university officials, including Provost Muluken Tesfaye and Nursing Dean Feyissa Lemessa, to discuss the launch of a new ophthalmic nursing training program.

“A lot of the work currently being done by early-career residents — tasks that in the U.S. are often handled by ophthalmic technicians — could be shifted to trained ophthalmic nurses,” Shenkute said. “That would allow residents to spend more time developing their clinical skills and also help the department see more patients, because the patient volumes are very high.”

U-M Global REACH supported Dr. Shenkute’s experience in Ethiopia and is supporting the nursing training effort through a Partnership Development Grant. A second-year resident, Shenkute plans to remain involved in the project. Born and raised in Ethiopia before moving to the United States for undergraduate and medical school, he described the visit as especially meaningful.

“One of the primary reasons why I wanted to come to Kellogg and U-M was because of the global ophthalmology program,” Shenkute said. “Getting engaged in the project was really personal for me, and being able to return to Addis Ababa, where I was born and raised, as a physician and being able to contribute in a meaningful way felt like a full-circle moment.”

Date: 11 September 2026
Source: Kellogg Eye Center