Salpi Ghazarian

Biography

Salpi Ghazarian joined the USC Institute of Armenian Studies in 2014 to lead an institute dedicated to advancing contemporary Armenian studies in a broad, multidisciplinary, global framework. She assumed the position after returning to Los Angeles from Yerevan, Armenia, where she lived for 15 years and during that time co-founded and directed the Civilitas Foundation, a think tank and an advocacy organization where she was managing a team of 60 professional and support staff, helping to introduce a new culture of civic activism to Armenia’s struggling democracy by establishing and expanding the foundation’s programming to include civil society strengthening, Internet media, and research and publishing. Civilitas and its media program, CivilNet, pioneered a new culture of responsible journalism through online television and data-based reporting. Salpi’s previous posts include Special Assistant to the Foreign Minister of Armenia, Vartan Oskanian, during the formative years of the newly independent country’s foreign policy with a special focus on relations with the US, the EU and the cooperation with the UN. She was also the head of research for the Massachusetts-based Zoryan Institute which focused on publication of contemporary post-Genocide and Armenian Diaspora topics. For close to three decades Salpi has worked as an educator, researcher, language instructor and has been a librarian for the Los Angeles County Public Library and the for the Armenian collection at the UCLA library. Throughout her career she has been instrumental as an editor to various Armenian publications, most importantly as the editor and later as the publisher of the Armenian International Magazine. She is a USC and UCLA Alumna with degrees in Arts in History and Library Science.