Bichaka Fayissa is Professor in the Department of Economics & Finance in the Jones College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University.  He is originally from Ethiopia.  He has Ph. D and MA in Economics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and also MS in Agricultural Economics from UTK and BS degree from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.  Upon receiving his doctoral degree, he joined Middle Tennessee State University in 1980. Few years after his arrival, he volunteered to serve as the Coordinator of the Inroads Program at Middle Tennessee State University. Inroads is/was a non-profit organization which identifies/identified talented minority students from area High Schools, prepares/prepared them to attend college and graduate, and places/placed them in management positions in corporate America. In this respect, my role was to organize short workshops for Inroads students to familiarize them with the various academic programs and services at MTSU in order to give them a head start, attract them to attend MTSU, and help them to succeed in their degree programs wherever they end up going. The more 100 Inroads graduates from MTSU have assumed significant managerial positions in corporate America as intended. In terms of scholarly contributions, Professor Fayissa has published over 60 refereed articles in international, national, and regional journals. He has also contributed book chapters for publications. Professor Fayissa is the winner of Outstanding Research Award and Outstanding Public Service Award at Middle Tennessee State University in 1992 and 2001, respectively. In terms of external professional visibility that brings recognition to MTSU, Professor Fayissa has served as President of the African Finance & Economic Association, the Academy of Economics & Finance, and the Oromo Studies Association. Professor Fayissa also serves on the Board of the Academy of Economics &Finance the African Finance & Economics Association.

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