Meghri Avakian serves as Special Assistant to Spirit of America’s CEO, Jim Hake. Before joining Spirit of America, Meghri worked with an international non-profit organization that led values-based peacebuilding efforts in 20+ countries. As Executive Assistant to the President and later Partnership Engagement Specialist, she helped organize 1.5 and track II security dialogues among various civil society organizations, faith leaders, government, and private sector across East/West Africa, and the Indo-Pacific. Part of her portfolio included supporting the organization’s Department of Homeland Security Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention grant, which focuses on harnessing the power of community-based, grassroots efforts to identify and help prevent threats in the homeland.

Meghri previously worked on the Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership program which provides short-term visits to the US for current and emerging foreign leaders. Meghri has lived in Lebanon, where she worked at the American University of Beirut supporting USAID and US-Middle East Partnership Initiative programs. Her involvement with Armenian volunteer and service organizations have led her to Yerevan, Tbilisi, and Nagorno-Karabakh. Some of her early career internships were with the US House of Representatives, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the United Nations in New York.

Meghri completed her graduate studies in international relations and international security at Harvard University Extension School. Her undergraduate studies are in political science and philosophy from Mount St. Mary’s University. Meghri is Lebanese-Armenian, born and raised in the greater Washington, DC Metropolitan area. She is fluent in Armenian, proficient in Levantine Arabic, with elementary proficiency in Turkish.