Tsehaye Teferra Founder and President, Ethiopian Community Development Council, Inc. Arlington, VA
A native of Ethiopia, Dr. Tsehaye Teferra is Founder and President of the Ethiopian Community Development Council, Inc. (ECDC). ECDC was established in 1983 to serve a growing Ethiopian refugee community and assist other refugees and immigrants from diverse cultural backgrounds. Under his leadership and vision, ECDC has gone from a start-up agency with a first-year budget of $85,000 to a major community-based organization with an annual budget of over $16 million. ECDC has 3 branch offices and 12 affiliates providing multicultural services to newcomers around the country.
Dr. Tsehaye received his undergraduate degree from Haile Selassie I University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He served as a cross-cultural instructor in the Peace Corps’ in-country training program and taught at several institutions of learning in Ethiopia before coming to the United States as a UNESCO Fellow in 1972. He completed an M.S. in Applied Linguistics and a Ph.D. in Sociolinguistics at Georgetown University.
Dr. Tsehaye is active in civic, professional, and local community matters; he is a board member of several nonprofits, including InterAction. He has received many awards, including recognition for his outstanding contributions to the United States by the U.S. Department of State in 1991. In January 2012, Dr. Tsehaye was honored for his community service by the White House during an event themed, “Champions of Change: American Diaspora Community” in Washington, D.C.