WASHINGTON — Armenian Assembly of America Western Region Director Mihran Toumajan will leave his current position after seven years of service to Armenian-American advocacy and community priorities. At the onset of 2023, Toumajan will start a new job in the field of government affairs.
Working with the Assembly’s congressional relations team in Washington, Toumajan was instrumental in mobilizing grassroots support for Armenian Genocide resolutions (H.Res.296 and S.Res.150), which were adopted overwhelmingly in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate in 2019.
During the 2020 War on Artsakh, he tirelessly advanced key Assembly initiatives and raised awareness on the horrors unfolding and the fundamental right of the people of Artsakh to live freely and securely in their ancestral homeland.
Toumajan also represented the Assembly within various Armenian American coalitions in southern California, including Armenia Fund, Inc. and its Board of Directors, the Armenian Genocide Committee (AGC), the Pan-Armenian Council of the Western USA (PAC-WUSA), and the United Armenian Council of Los Angeles (UACLA), as well as at bicameral hearings of the California State Legislature in Sacramento. Additionally, Mihran testified regularly on the merits of key legislation ranging from AB 1320 (the Divestment from Turkish Bonds Act) to AB 1801 (State holidays: Genocide Remembrance Day) to ACR 105 (a resolution on California’s sister state relationship with Armenia’s Syunik Province), among other initiatives.
In addition, Toumajan helped to encourage sizable contingents of Armenian Americans based in the Western United States to participate in the Assembly’s National Advocacy Conferences in our nation’s capital in 2018 and 2019, and during the Assembly’s virtual Advocacy Conference in the Spring of 2021. Toumajan helped to re-energize the Assembly’s Southern and Northern California Regional Councils, in addition to assisting in the establishment of regional committees in Los Angeles and Orange counties and in California’s Inland Empire. During Toumajan’s tenure, key activists from Arizona, Utah, and the State of Washington joined the Assembly as State Chairs, further enhancing the Assembly’s outreach and advocacy efforts.
A Terjenian-Thomas Internship Program alumnus, Toumajan promoted the Assembly’s Washington, D.C. and Yerevan flagship, 8-week, Summer internship programs with passion and purpose. In that vein, he visited several college campuses throughout the State of California and motivated Armenian students to apply for either of the Assembly’s internship opportunities using his own example as one of over 1,200 alumni.
