Tesfaye Kassa was born in Debrebrhane, Ethiopia, in 1971. He received his Diploma and B.Sc. degree in Medical Laboratory Technology from Jimma University, Ethiopia, in 1990 and 1998, respectively, and M.Sc. degree in Medical Microbiology from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, in 2004. He received his Ph.D. degree in Microbiology from Panjab University, Chandigarh, India, in 2013.

In 1990, he served as medical laboratory technician in Health center in Jimma area and then after in 1992, he joined the Department of Medical Microbiology & Parasitology in the school of medicine as a technical assistant. In 1998, he worked as assistant lecturer. He was as a Lecturer in the same Department in Jimma University. Since January 2013, he has been in the School of Medical Laboratory Science, in Jimma University, Ethiopia, an Assistant Professor.

His current research interests include enteropathogens, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), hepatitis, and bacteriophage therapy. Dr. Tesfaye is a life time Member of the Ethiopian Society for Microbiology, and Ethiopian Medical Laboratory Association. He is a member of American Society for Microbiology (ASM) since 2007 and serving as ASM technical consultant in Ethiopia. Currently he is the vice president of Ethiopian Society for Microbiology. He has doing and supervising postgraduate students in research undertakings and published several scientific papers.