Education Reformer Nayiri Nahabedian Announces Candidacy For
California Assembly
Asbarez
Jan 8th, 2010

Glendale School Board Member seeks to shake up Sacramento

GLENDALE, CA – Nayiri Nahabedian, a School Board Member for the Glendale
Unified School District and a Professor in the School of Social Work
at California State University, Los Angeles, announced her candidacy
Friday to become the next Assemblymember for California’s 43rd
Assembly District.

She will vie to replace Paul Krekorian, who recently vacated the seat
to serve as a member of the Los Angeles City Council.

`We need a representative who knows how local government works. I am
the only candidate who will be able to bring that home-grown expertise
to Sacramento’, Nahabedian said. `The voters of this district want
someone who knows exactly what the effects of Sacramento’s policies
are on a local level.’

Nahabedian has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to education
reform in Southern California and has a long history of educational
advocacy. In 1996, she was one of the founders of the Generation Next
Mentorship Program, a non-profit organization that provides Armenian
youths with volunteer mentors who would be able to offer them
guidance, support and a positive role model.

As a School Board Member at GUSD, Nahabedian has found ways to offer
cutting-edge educational programs in the face of severe budget cut
backs. `We recently were able to expand our innovative Foreign
Language Academy of Glendale program, which offers our elementary
school students foreign language immersion classes and curricula,
without adding any deficits to our district’s budget. This is the
kind of practical knowledge and budgeting skills I want to bring to
Sacramento’, Nahabedian stated.

California’s 43rd Assembly District spans the cities of Burbank and
Glendale. It also includes portions of Los Angeles, including the
neighborhoods of Atwater Village, Laurel Grove, Los Feliz, Silver
Lake, North Hollywood, Toluca Lake, Toluca Woods, Toluca Terrace,
Valley Glen and Van Nuys. The Assembly seat is currently vacant, and
a special election is expected to be scheduled for April, with a June
run-off.

Nayiri Nahabedian, 40, first moved with her family to Glendale in
1986, where she attended Glendale High School and Glendale Community
College before transferring to the University of California, Los
Angeles. She would go on to earn both a Bachelors degree in
Psychology and a Master’s in Social Work at UCLA. She currently
teaches at CSULA, where she teaches about Public Policy and Child
Welfare issues. She was elected to the GUSD School Board in 2007.
Previously, she had served on the City of Glendale’s Commission on the
Status of Women from 2004 to 2007.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress