Ardy Kassakhian

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Ardy Kassakhian moved to Glendale, California with his parents as a young child. He was raised in Glendale and attended Glendale public schools. Kassakhian is a graduate of UCLA and holds a B.A. in history.  He also holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Administration from Northwestern University.  As a college student, he worked on voter registration and education.  He traveled to Washington, D.C. where he interned for members of the House of Representatives including the founding Chairman of the Armenian Issues Caucus - Rep. Frank Pallone, (D-NJ).

After working in Washington, Kassakhian returned to California and worked for a public affairs firm where he met his future wife. Kassakhian later worked for the Armenian National Committee of America, Western Region where he worked on policy issues related to immigrant rights, voting rights, genocide awareness and prevention and other issues on the local, state and federal levels of government.

In 2005, Kassakhian ran for the open Glendale City Clerk seat with the explicit goal of making elections in Glendale more transparent, accessible and secure. He was the youngest person ever elected to a Glendale municipal post in the city’s history.  In 2020 Kassakhian ran for Council becoming the first City Clerk to be elected to Glendale’s City Council. 

Kassakhian has completed the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Senior Executives in State and Local Government program in addition to the Coro Executive Program.  Today, Kassakhian shares his experiences and knowledge of government in the classroom as a college instructor teaching political science and introduction to government at Glendale Community College.

Kassakhian is the grandson and great grandson of survivors of the Armenian Genocide between 1915 – 1923 perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks and their government.  The survival story of his paternal great grandfather was recently translated by Dr. Arda Ekmekji and published through Haigazian University under the title “Towards Golgotha: The Memoirs of Hagop Arsenian, a Genocide Survivor.”

Ardy lives in Glendale with his wife Courtney who is an educator and administrator.  Courtney went to USC and Ardy is a Bruin, but they are still happily married.  Their son will have a tough time deciding where to apply to college.

Shushan Karapetian, Ph.D. 

Dr. Shushan Karapetian is Deputy Director of the Institute of Armenian Studies at USC, where she leads the Institute’s research and scholarship initiatives, deepening the integration with entities both on and off campus and expanding the scope of academic programming. She received a PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from UCLA in 2014, where she taught Armenian Studies courses for ten years. Her dissertation, “‘How Do I Teach My Kids My Broken Armenian?’: A Study of Eastern Armenian Heritage Language Speakers in Los Angeles,” received the Society for Armenian Studies Distinguished Dissertation Award in 2015. In 2018, she was the recipient of the Russ Campbell Young Scholar Award in recognition of outstanding scholarship in heritage language research. Dr. Karapetian researches, teaches, and writes about the Armenian experience, particularly focusing on competing ideologies at the intersection of language and the construction of transnational identity.

St. Claire Adriaan 

St. Claire Adriaan was born, raised and educated in Apartheid South Africa. Very early in his life, he learned that education was his only weapon against Apartheid. Motivated by my parents, community and teachers, he did everything in my power to go to college and focused on being a lifelong learner. He strongly believes that it is not where you come from that determines your destiny but hard work, the will to succeed and adults that believe in you.

St. Claire is a lifelong educator and believes in educating the whole child, narrowing the achievement, opportunity and technological gap within a school where students are happy, inspired, empowered and have a voice, while taking ownership of their learning. He is currently Founding Principal of Academy of the City Middle School in Queens, NY. St. Claire will also be graduating from IIRP Graduate School with a M.S. Restorative Practices in July.

Bunni Sek

From 1975-1979, upwards of 3 million Cambodians were killed during the genocide commenced by the Khmer Rouge Communist party in Cambodia. Bunni Sek was born in a Cambodian refugee camp, named Sa Keao, in 1980. Two years later the Sek family was sponsored by the United States and was transferred to Long Beach, California. Bunni and her family left behind a terrifying part of their history but were now faced with a new set of adversities. The city and her neighborhood were downtrodden with poverty, gangs, and violence. Bunni was only 7 years old when she experienced her first attack walking home from school. It wasn’t until Bunni was introduced to a new school and Erin Gruwell's class that her life became more promising. Her chances of becoming another statistic were suddenly reduced. She became friends with peers who shared a similar background of turmoil and had a teacher who wanted to understand it all. Bunni is a Project Specialist Consultant for Mission Support Alliance, and is a part of the Freedom Writer family.