Dr. Alemayehu Akalu was born and raised in Ethiopia. He received his BSc degree in physics from Jimma University in Jimma, Ethiopia. He then came to the United States to pursue his dream of becoming a pharmacist. He joined Howard University College of Pharmacy in 2013 and graduated with magna cum laude and received his doctor of pharmacy degree in 2017. He was the recipient of dean’s leadership award, NIH endowment scholarship, dean’s scholarship, and Howard University College of Pharmacy Alumni Scholarship. During his stay at the college, he served as class president for the graduating class, vice president for Rho Chi pharmacy honor society Howard University chapter 2015-2016, chairman of community service 2015- 2016, and student representative for the assessment committee 2014- 2016. He published a research paper that considered the impact of co-administering medications with albumin in a hypoalbuminic patients while he was in pharmacy school. Dr. Alemayehu is currently doing an ORISE fellowship with the US-FDA. His current research studies evaluate opportunities for extrapolation of adult efficacy data in schizophrenia and polyarticular juvenile arthritis (PJIA), pediatric development of molecularly targeted drugs, and roles of fusion oncoproteins in pediatric malignancies.