Dr. Yacob Astatke currently serves as the Assistant Vice President (AVP) for International Affairs at Morgan State University (MSU), a position he has held since July 2017. As the AVP for the Division of International Affairs (DIA), his main responsibility is to lead the university’s commitment and goal to support international leadership, service and education of Morgan State University students, faculty and alumni. He has played a key role in the implementation of “Morgan’s Global Campus” initiative, with the launch of a new campus in Ghana that will start offering two master’s degree programs, an MBA with a focus on FinTech, and a Masters of Art degree in Global Multimedia Journalism and Communication, in Fall 2020. In addition, DIA played a crucial role in the signing of a major partnership with the Tertiary Education Fund (TETFund) of Nigeria to bring up to 50 PhD students per year to Morgan on a full scholarship starting in the Fall of 2020. As such, the DIA is actively seeking to grow Morgan’s relationships and partnerships with universities and public/private organizations around the world.

Prior to becoming the AVP for International Affairs, Dr. Astatke was a full-time faculty member in the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. School of Engineering for over 20 years, where he rose to the position of Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education. For over a decade now, Dr. Astatke has facilitated the donation of hundreds of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) portable laboratory instrumentation boards and has conducted capacity-building training workshops for more than 25 universities in Ethiopia. This work has improved the education of thousands of ECE students in Ethiopia annually. He has expanded his services to other African countries such as Nigeria, South Africa, and Cameroon. Dr. Astatke is recipient of several national and international awards, including: the 2013 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) “National Outstanding Teaching Award,” and more recently the “2016 Global Engineering Deans Council (GEDC)-Airbus Diversity Award,” and the “2016 Black Engineer of the Year (BEYA) for College Level Promotion of Education.”