Candidate for
State Assembly Member; District 43

Nayiri Nahabedian has been a committed community activist, children's advocate, and education reformer for over twenty years. She has dedicated her life to improving education and standing up for the most vulnerable children and families in our community. Nayiri moved to Glendale as a teenager and graduated from Glendale High School. She enrolled at Glendale Community College where she was part of the Scholars Program, and later transfered to UCLA, where she would earn a Bachelor's in Psychology and a Master's from the School of Public Policy and Social Research.

After earning her Master's, Nayiri worked for over five years in the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services as a Social Worker. Nayiri worked out of the Alameda office in the Central and South Los Angeles areas where she helped struggling families with children recover from physical and sexual abuse, domestic violence, and drug addiction. Nayiri co-founded the Generation Next Mentorship Program, which focuses on providing mentorship to at-risk youth in Glendale schools.

Nayiri's passion for education eventually led her to become a full-time educator. For the past ten years, Nayiri has been a faculty member at California State University, Los Angeles's School of Social Work, where she teaches courses on child welfare, public policy, and social service.

Nayiri has a strong record of standing up for women's rights and leading the fight against domestic violence. She served as the vice-chair of the Commission on the Status of Women for the City of Glendale (2004-2007), where she dealt with women's rights in the workplace, women's health and teen violence.

Currently, Nayiri is a Board Member of the highly regarded Glendale Unified School District, well-known for innovative education programs and academic excellence. As a board member she helps lead a School District with a $200 million operating budget and 2,800 employees in over 30 schools. Despite the effects of severe budget cuts, Nayiri and the Board have been able to balance the budget without laying off teachers, raise academic test scores, expand the district's "Foreign Language Academy" immersion classes, establish new conservation guidelines that have reduced energy use and saved the district over two million dollars, and introduced the "Arts Attack" Program, which utilized talented volunteers to bring world-class music and art to Glendale students.