Chala earned his MSc and BSc in Environmental Health from Wollo University, Ethiopia. He has worked as a full-time academic, serving as a lecturer and researcher at Wollo University. His PhD study at the Australian National University (ANU), Research School of Population Health will focus on bushfire smoke, health risk assessment, and intervention strategies.

His research interests broadly encompass Environmental and Public Health topics, with a primary focus on climate change and health, air pollution and bushfire smoke, health risk assessment, systematic review and meta-analyses, and spatial epidemiology.