Author: Ekmekjian Janet

GLENDALE—The Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region’s Education Committee announced that the 2018 National Teacher of the Year Mandy Manning will deliver the keynote address at the 3rd Annual Armenian Genocide Education Awards Luncheon on Saturday, March 23.

“The ANCA-WR Education Committee is proud to have the National Teacher of the year Mandy Manning, as a keynote speaker and honored guest at the 3rd Annual Armenian Genocide Awards Luncheon.  Mandy began her career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Armenia and continues her interest on Armenian issues” said Alice Petrossian, Chair of the ANCA-WR Education Committee.

As an educator with 19 years of experience, Mandy Manning has taught across the curriculum, worked with students of various grade levels, and has even taught in different countries, including Armenia and Japan. Currently, Manning is an English and Math teacher who teaches refugee and immigrant students in Spokane, Washington. According to the Council of Chief State School Officers website, in her classroom, Manning uses experiential projects like map-making to help her students process trauma, celebrate their home countries and culture, and learn about their new community.

Manning began her career as an educator in the Peace Corps in Armenia, and has taught in Japan and in schools across the U.S. Over the years, she has taught students who have arrived from diverse populations including the war-torn countries of the Middle East.

Manning is a National Board Certified Teacher. She has previously been awarded with the National Education Association Foundation’s California Casualty Award for Teaching Excellence in 2017 and the Kim Plemons Leadership Award from the Spokane Education Association in 2015. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Eastern Washington University, a Masters of Arts from West Texas A & M University, and a Masters of Fine Arts from Northwest Institute of Literary Arts.

All community members are invited to the 3rd Annual Armenian Genocide Education Awards Luncheon, to show their appreciation, celebrate and honor educators for their dedication to teaching about the Armenian Genocide. This year’s luncheon is scheduled to begin at 11am at De Luxe Banquet Hall in Burbank. Tickets and sponsorship opportunities are available online. Please reserve your tickets immediately as last year this event sold out early. For additional information, visit the ANCA-WR website or call (818) 500-1918.

The Armenian National Committee of America- Western Region (ANCA-WR) is a grassroots public affairs organization devoted to advancing issues of concern to the Armenian American community. For nearly a century, the ANCA-WR has served to educate, motivate and activate the Armenian American community in the Western United States on a wide range of issues.

Urges Strong Voter Turnout for March 5 Special Election

GLENDALE—The Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region this week announced its endorsement of Jackie Goldberg who is a candidate for the special general election for Los Angeles Unified Board of Education District 5 set for March 5.

Goldberg is a lifelong activist with a long record of public service. A former teacher who served in the California State Assembly, Goldberg was elected to the LAUSD Board of Education in 1983 where she served for two terms. Her leadership was instrumental in creating a districtwide K-12 dual language (bilingual) education program, creating and implementing a secondary peace curriculum, establishing on-campus health clinics, improving curriculum in reading, math and science, fostering policies that helped the District overcome an acute teacher shortage, successfully building new schools and additions to begin to address multi-track calendars and other overcrowding issues, and developing school-based management to create accountability and ownership for teachers and administrators at each school site.

In the 1990s, Goldberg was elected to the 13th District seat on the Los Angeles City Council representing Atwater Village, East Hollywood, Echo Park, Elysian Valley, Glassell Park, Historic Filipinotown, Hollywood, Little Armenia, Mid-Wilshire/Koreatown, Thai Town and Silver Lake. She was responsible for getting the city to approve the designation of Little Armenia. During her time as a California State Assemblymember, Goldberg also supported the grassroots efforts of the ANCA-WR to pass the Trade Office Bill in 2002, whose goal was to establish a California Regional Trade Office in the Republic of Armenia to facilitate trade and commerce between the two entities. After the devastating earthquake in Armenia in 1988, Goldberg collected donations from students and personally delivered the generous aid to quake-ravaged areas in Armenia.

As a part of this endorsement process, the ANCA-WR Board worked in conjunction with its Education Committee and local chapter constituents to carefully review Goldberg’s track record. An interview was then conducted where it became obvious that Goldberg’s long-standing affinity toward the Armenian community and issues of importance to it remains steadfast. For this reason, the ANCA-WR proudly endorses Jackie Goldberg for LAUSD District 5 and urges our community to turn out to vote for her.

LAUSD District 5 begins Los Feliz, Silver Lake and Echo Park, curves through Highland Park and Eagle Rock, then slices down through a sliver of El Sereno into the southeast cities of Vernon, Huntington Park and South Gate.

Anyone who needs assistance with mail-in ballots or voter information, please contact the ANCA-WR office at 818-500-1918.

The Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region is the largest and most influential Armenian-American grassroots advocacy organization in the Western United States. Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the Western United States and affiliated organizations around the country, the ANCA-WR advances the concerns of the Armenian-American community on a broad range of issues.