Armenian National Committee of America
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PRESS RELEASE
February 25, 2005
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918
ANCA WELCOMES KATE NAHAPETIAN TO WASHINGTON, DC STAFF
— Former U.S. Department of Justice Policy Analyst to Lead
Government Relations Efforts
WASHINGTON, DC – Accomplished lawyer and human rights activist Kate
Nahapetian joined the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA)
Washington, DC staff this week as Government Affairs Director of
the grassroots advocacy organization’s national headquarters.
“Kate is a powerful addition to the ANCA professional staff. We
are tremendously pleased that she will be bringing her considerable
legal skills, boundless energy, determination and creativity to the
vital work of advancing the Armenian American community’s
government affairs priorities,” said ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian.
“Along with our board, chapters, activists and supporters across
the United States, I want to warmly welcome Kate to the ANCA’s
Washington, DC team, and to say how much all of us look forward to
working with her in the months and years to come.”
Kate Nahapetian graduated magna cum laude with a degree in
International Studies from American University and received a J.D.
with a focus on international and human rights law from the
University of California at Berkeley School of Law.
She has worked on asylum and migration issues at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace and the German Council on Foreign
Policy in Berlin. She was also a legislative correspondent for
Senator Joseph Biden and received a Konrad Adenauer Foundation
Fellowship to pursue graduate studies in Germany. At Mental
Disability Rights International, she was instrumental in starting a
project in Armenia to help develop community-based care for people
with mental disabilities. In addition, Kate documented cases of
torture in Chile for the prosecution against General Augusto
Pinochet and has published two articles on international law. Upon
graduating from law school, Kate litigated complex class actions at
Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes and Lerach before working as a Policy
Analyst with the Community Relations Service of the U.S. Department
of Justice, which mediates ethnic and racial conflicts in the
United States.
An active participant and leader in Armenian American community
life, growing up, Kate spent summers at AYF Camp Haiastan. During
her undergraduate years, she was a member of the Armenian Youth
Federation Washington Ani Chapter and participated in the Armenian
Relief Society’s Summer Studies program. In 1991, she helped
develop the ANCA Congressional election strategy as part of the
ANCA Leo Sarkisian Internship program. She continued her activism
with the ANC, through participation in the San Francisco, San Diego
and Washington, DC chapters.
“I am very excited about coming on board and becoming part of our
efforts to represent the Armenian American voice in the nation’s
capital,” stated Kate Nahapetian. “There are great challenges ahead
and I look forward to working with our grassroots network of
dedicated activists to continue moving our shared priorities
forward.”