Born in Chattanooga, Dr. Ettien attended the University of the South at Sewanee. Following graduation he accepted a commission in the U.S. Air Force and was trained as an aerial Navigator. Following a tour of duty in the Strategic Air Command, he entered medical training at the Medical College of Georgia, where he was selected for the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society, was Editor of the School Newspaper and President of the Senior Class. He was also awarded the Mosby Scholarship Award.

His post-graduate training consisted of a surgical internship at Vanderbilt and a surgical residency at the Medical College of Georgia. Following two years of private practice in North Carolina, he accepted the position of Associate Professor of Surgery at the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine. He was subsequently recruited to private practice at the Diagnostic Clinic in Largo, FL where he practiced for 27 years. During that time he served as Chief of Surgery, Chairman of the Cancer Control Committee and on the American College of Surgeons Committee as Cancer Liaison Physician for 25 years.

Dr. Ettien is certified by the American Board of Surgery in addition to being a Senior Fellow of the American College of Surgery, a Fellow of the International College of Surgeons, a Member of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract and a Senior Member of the Association for Academic Surgery as well as many other medical and surgical organizations. For several years he served as an Editorial Advisor for the medical publication "Resident and Staff Physician."

He is married to Joann Lynn Ettien, RN, MS, who is currently the Administrator of the Centennial Women's Hospital.