Girmay received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, and earned a Master of Architecture and Doctoral degree in Urban Design from Texas Tech University. He has enormous experience in the commercial, residential, hotel, education, office, and mixed-use building types. In addition, Girmay has participated in numerous master planning and urban design projects. He has a number of remarkable research experiences and has published several international conference papers and journals focused on sustainable environmental design through spatial configuration studies.