Bethlehem Tekola Gebru did her Ph.D. in the department of Psychology at the University of Bath, United Kingdom. She has BA in History and MA in Social Anthropology from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Prior to joining KCL in 2017, she has worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Open University, a research manager with the Wellbeing in Developing Countries (WeD) ESRC Research Group at the University of Bath and consultant at Young Lives, University of Oxford.

Her Ph.D. research has focussed on perceptions and experiences of children who live in poverty in Addis Ababa. As part of her BA and MA degrees she has conducted ethnographic research with commercial sex workers in Addis Ababa. She has expertise and a keen interest in qualitative research approaches and in working with marginalised and vulnerable groups.

Since 2012 she has been involved in three autism research projects in Ethiopia (now in Ethiopia and Kenya), leading the design and execution of the qualitative research component of these projects.

Research Interests 

• Qualitative research and research ethics
• Stigma in the context of developmental disabilities
• Perceptions and experiences of marginalised and vulnerable people/groups