Our Staff

Leeza Arakelian is the assistant editor for the Armenian Weekly. She is a formally trained broadcast news writer and a graduate of UCLA and Emerson College. Leeza has written and produced for local and network television news including Boston 25 and Al Jazeera America.

Masha is an artist currently located in Boston. Her childhood was split between Yerevan and Moscow. At the age of five, she returned to Yerevan and began her education at Pushkin School and art education at the Igityan Art Center, and spent her childhood summers in Stepanakert (Karabakh), a sobering postwar region in Armenia. Later, she continued her art studies at the Architect’s Society of Armenia in Yerevan, and in 2009, her family emigrated to Belmont, Mass. She has received her BFA in painting at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. You can learn more about her and see her work at: mashakeryan.com

William Terian is the Armenian Weekly's Senior Artist and illustrator. He donates his talent to help the Armenian Weekly's print meet its artistic needs. Bill, as his friends call him, lives in Michigan, in a small, rural community, outside of Detroit. He attended the Center for Creative Studies and worked for The Detroit News, as an illustrator. Years later, Bill went on to work for the Internal Revenue Service as an illustrator. He spent the next 32 years working for the federal government before retiring. Bill also served as a senior editor, photographer and writer for KTRA (Kensington Trail Riders Assoc.), an equine organization that sponsors equine events and activities. Bill was also a mounted police officer with Oakland County. Later, he went on to serve with the Livingston County Mounted Division. All and all, Bill says it’s been a great life, thanks to God. And he thanks his wife, Araxie, for agreeing to share his time with the community.

Rob Apelian grew up along the east coast from Maryland to New Jersey. He is now living and working in Boston, Massachusetts. He creates comics and illustrations to bring the culture of Armenia and the Middle East to everyone. He is currently a cartoon panelist at the Armenian Weekly.

Karine Vann is a former editor of the Armenian Weekly and host of the paper's monthly podcast. She is a musician who transitioned into journalism while living in the Caucasus for several years. Her bylines have appeared in Smithsonian.com, The New Food Economy, and a number of other publications. She can be reached at karine@armenianweekly.com.

Raffi Elliott is a Canadian-Armenian political risk analyst and journalist based in Yerevan, Armenia. As correspondent and columnist for the Armenian Weekly, he covers socioeconomic, political, business and diplomatic issues in Armenia, with occasional thoughts on culture and urbanism.

Stepan was raised in the Armenian community of Indian Orchard, MA at the St. Gregory Parish. A former member of the AYF Central Executive and the Eastern Prelacy Executive Council, he also served many years as a delegate to the Eastern Diocesan Assembly. Currently , he serves as a member of the board and executive committee of the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR). He also serves on the board of the Armenian Heritage Foundation. Stepan is a retired executive in the computer storage industry and resides in the Boston area with his wife Susan. He has spent many years as a volunteer teacher of Armenian history and contemporary issues to the young generation and adults at schools, camps and churches. His interests include the Armenian diaspora, Armenia, sports and reading.

C.K. Garabed (a.k.a. Charles Kasbarian) has been active in the Armenian Church and Armenian community organizations all his life. As a writer and editor, he has been a keen observer of, and outspoken commentator on, political and social matters affecting Armenian Americans. He has been a regular contributor to the Armenian Reporter and the AGBU Literary Quarterly, “ARARAT.” For 20 years, Garabed has been a regular contributor to the Armenian Weekly. He produces a weekly column called “Uncle Garabed's Notebook,” in which he presents an assortment of tales, anecdotes, poems, riddles, and trivia; for the past 10 years, each column has contained a deconstruction of an Armenian surname. He believes his greatest accomplishment in life, and his contribution to the Armenian nation, has been the espousing of Aghavni, and the begetting of Antranig and Lucine.

Harut Sassounian is the publisher of The California Courier, a weekly newspaper based in Glendale, Calif. He is the president of the United Armenian Fund, a coalition of the seven largest Armenian-American organizations. He has been decorated by the president and prime minister of the Republic of Armenia, and the heads of the Armenian Apostolic and Catholic churches. He is also the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

Garen Yegparian is a fat, bald guy who has too much to say and do for his own good. So, you know he loves mouthing off weekly about anything he damn well pleases to write about that he can remotely tie in to things Armenian. He's got a checkered past: principal of an Armenian school, project manager on a housing development, ANC-WR Executive Director, AYF Field worker (again on the left coast), Operations Director for a telecom startup, and a City of LA employee most recently (in three different departments so far). Plus, he's got delusions of breaking into electoral politics, meanwhile participating in other aspects of it and making sure to stay in trouble. His is a weekly column that appears originally in Asbarez, but has been republished to the Armenian Weekly for many years.