Abraham Adhanom
Biography
Abraham is a faculty member in the African American Studies Department at UCLA. He develops courses and teaches African Languages including Tigrinya (Eritrean National Language) and Amharic (Ethiopian National Language). He has been teaching at UCLA since 2011.
Abraham is a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Business Process Management Professional (BPMP), and Certified Master Coach (CMC). Abraham currently serves as an Associate Professor of Management at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California, where he teaches courses such as Project
Management, Operations Management, Production Management, Business, Ethics, Business Analytics, and Organizational Performance Management both at the undergrad and graduate (MBA) programs. He also served as a member of the GEC (General Education Council, and co- chair of GECC (General Education Curriculum Committee).
His corporate consulting experience involves project management, process improvement, enterprise asset valuation, and organizational change management at local and global organizations, including the Los Angeles County Office of Education, LA Care, Kaiser Permanente, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America. Prior to moving to the US, Abraham directed over 32 hydraulics and engineering projects, including micro dams, water supply pipelines, irrigation channels, clinics, schools, and rural roads in East Africa. The projects were sponsored by the Lutheran World Federation, a Geneva, Switzerland-based international organization.
Abraham holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Management Information Systems, a Master’s in International Business/Intercultural Studies, and a PhD in Management with Concentration in Information Systems Management.
His research interests focus on project management involving design and development of African language and linguistics technologies, international project, process, and change management, African colonial legacies and post-colonial leadership development, and analysis and documentation of Eritrean music, beats, and notations.
In 2023, Abraham received two grants from the UCOP (University of California President’s office) to develop International Project Management and Tigrinya Language courses at UCLA. He also facilitated the establishment of the Dr. Elizabeth Woldemussie Centennial Global Health Fund at the UCLA African Studies Center.
Abraham currently serves as a Community Science Fellow at AGU (American Geophysical Union) Thriving Earth Exchange.
Abraham organized the 1st Global UCLA and Stanford-sponsored Tigrinya Language Digital Initiatives Symposium with colleagues from Stanford and two other organizations.
