Misrak has over 30 years of professional experience at the senior level with UNICEF, other UN agencies, regional organizations and academia covering a whole spectrum of areas ranging from policy advocacy, capacity building and training to programme development and implementation at the field level.
She has over 15 years of experience as a lecturer/trainer at Addis Ababa University and the Eastern and Southern African Management Institute where she developed and led the first ever training programme in Africa on integrating gender issues in development and promoting gender equality.
As a Global Advisor on gender for UNICEF, she led the development of UNICEF’s policy and strategy on gender, advocating for priority focus on girls’ development. As a diplomat, she has served as UNICEF Country Representative in Jordan and South Africa.
On retirement from the United Nations, Misrak worked on a variety of consultancy services setting up her own company MESA Development Solution. She also served as Team Leader for a Programme to End Child Marriage in Ethiopia.
Much of Misrak’s time after retirement has been devoted to voluntary services with NGOs in Ethiopia. She is also an active member of the Rotary Club of Addis Ababa West.
Misrak obtained her BBA from Haile Selassie University, Ethiopia and her MBA from Columbia University, New York.
In 2015 she set up the YeBen Endowment Fund in memory of her son Dr. Benyam Asefa.