In the past three years, EDG has been building the capacity of its staff and is proud of its management and operational staff which are at once highly educated, experienced, and diverse in their background and culture. Together, they are able to produce economic and community development programs that are culturally appropriate and linguistically sensitive to the specialized needs of EDG’s target populations.What follows is a brief overview of the staff that will bring its talents and involvement to EDG’s individual and community revitalization programs:
Tsehaye Teferra, Ph.D., is the President of both ECDC and EDG. He received his Ph. D. in Linguistic from Georgetown University. He founded ECDC in 1983 in response to the needs of the growing immigrant and refugee community in the Washington, D.C. metro area. He has over 30 years of management, teaching, program planning, organizational development, and community development experience. He has been an active community leader both advocating for needs of immigrants, refugees and low-income individuals and providing services, which help them to become economically self-sufficient. He was a board member of Interaction, the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization and the Arlington County Multicultural Advisory Commission.
Haddish Welday is EDG’s Administration and Finance Manager. He has nine years of banking and five years of experience as a statistician. He has been a senior loan processor at First Virginia Bank, reviewing and processing consumer and commercial loans. For the past six years, Haddish has been managing the finances and assets of the EDG, which has over $3 million in loan funds and an outstanding portfolio of approximately $2.2 million. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a major in Finance from Eastern Washington University, and another bachelor degree in Statistics from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia.
Ephrem Negash has worked for EDG since March, 2003. An excellent, well organized, detail-oriented credit manager with over 18 years experience in the banking industry, Ephrem has worked as an assistant vice president for Loan Review and Risk Management, with the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, and served as a credit manager, project head, and economic researcher as well. He brings demonstrated credit risk management skills; extensive project management and appraisal; loan portfolio management and loan review experience to the position. He has a B.A. Degree in Economics from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. He is currently taking courses with the Economic Development Financial Services to be a certified Loan Fund Manager.
Chona Bravante holds a BA and an MSW from her native country of the Philippines. She has more than 15 years of experience working with low-income and immigrant populations especially through the creation of strategic partnerships and coalitions of social service agencies. She has managed a VITA site for each of the past three tax seasons. She is also an H & R Block certified Income Tax Preparer and a certified food handler for food distribution.
Emmanuel Mpfayokurera is the IDA Program Coordinator, providing clients with financial literacy training and assisting them to save to acquire an asset. He has an MBA in Project Management and he is a certified Income Tax Preparer by H & R Block and certified (VHDA) 1 st Time Homebuyer Instructor. He is under training to be Certified Financial Advisor. Further, he has a Professional Certificate in Home Ownership & Community Lending from the NeighborWorks America. He speaks French fluently and two African languages Kirundi and Kinyarwanda.
Elsa Desta – joined EDG on 1.10.02 as a staff accountant. She assists the Administration and Finance Manager in all accounting matters. Elsa has an Associate Science degree in accounting from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, and over twelve years of experiencein the accounting area.
Kidan Fekadeamlak is the Administrative Assistant. She has been with ECDC and EDG for almost six years. She has an excellent background in customer relations and some level of college education. She assists with intake registration, the organization and administration of files and documents, the production of materials, contacting clients, and all other administrative works.
Wossenseged Hailu is the Computer Services Associate for EDG for 5 year now. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. He has worked for Virginia Tech’s Information Technology Support Group and has various experiences with project designs. He is also knowledgeable in subjects like Digital Design, Microprocessor System Design, Satellite Communications and Global Positioning Systems.
Roman Corpuz is the Development and Marketing Associate of EDG. He holds a Master's degree in International Development from the Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo, Japan. He also attended Georgetown University's Master of Science in Foreign Service Program. Roman's work experiences include working for organizations and political institutions like The World Bank-Social Development Department and the Senate of the Philippines. He has also managed the Free Tax Preparation Program for Low Income Individuals for EDG in 2008.
