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.
