She holds a PhD in Economics from Maastricht University, The Netherlands, and an MSc in Agricultural Economics from Haramaya University, Ethiopia. Tigist's main research area is impact evaluation of development programs and policies. Specifically, she focuses on agricultural technology adoption, innovation practices, marketing, agricultural finance, household welfare and agricultural risk insurance linking with issues on climate change and food security. She has extensive experience in the analysis of large household surveys in both cross-sectional and panel data sets in Sub-Saharan Africa. During her time at UC Berkeley, Tigist will study the impact of innovative agricultural finance and training programs in transforming the farming system of smallholders’ in rural Ethiopia.