MELINE KARAKASHIAN is a licensed psychologist living in New Jersey. She was born in Lebanon where she received her primary education. She moved to the United States and studied at Rutgers and Seton Hall universities, majoring in psychology. For the past 25 years, she has worked as a clinical psychologist and university lecturer and has served on the boards of Armenian and American professional, educational, charitable, and civic organizations. Her expertise is in traumatic stress (PTSD) and her lifelong goal is to help individuals overcome psychological trauma. The subjects of her writings, while professional, almost always focus on Armenian issues, in particular the Genocide of 1915, the Earthquake of 1988, the Karabagh war, and Armenian migration. She published, The Trauma of Genocide and National Identity, on the intergenerational transmission of Genocide trauma in Eastern Armenian for her students, in 2006. With her husband, Nubar, a second cousin to Komitas, she has three adult children.
Meghedi Melody Nazarian was born in the San Francisco Bay Area and was very engaged in the Armenian community growing up. After graduating from the University of San Francisco with a bachelor’s degree in Communications and Journalism, she started her career as a fashion writer for popular online women’s blog network, POPSUGAR, and has since worked with major fashion companies like Paige Denim and Stitch Fix. Before heading to Armenia in 2015, she lived in Los Angeles.
