Karen T. Atamian

Human and Financial Resource Development

B. F. A., cum laude, dual major in History of Art and Studio Art, Syracuse University, College of Visual and Performing Arts. She is an Armenian American. She is a forty-five year participant in a specialized practice of the Transcendental Meditation Program, and is pleased to be a team member of the ArmeniaRecoveryNow Project. 

Arlene Hovanessian Denison

Writer

B.A., dual major in Linguistics and Sociology from New York University. She has enjoyed a long career in marketing communications, most recently with Kaiser Permanente, and has experience in content development, graphic design, and project management. She is a second generation Armenian-American whose grandparents survived the Genocide. Arlene is now retired and enjoys writing in support of charitable causes.

Brian Ellison

Accountant

Brian Ellison, B.A. accounting (Iowa Wesleyan, Mt Pleasant), Certified Financial Planner (CFP), Accredited Business Accountant (ABA), Accredited Tax Advisor (ATA), Accredited Tax Preparer (ATP). Teacher of Transcendental Meditation, tax consultant for over 30 years.

Jo Ann Gesner

Media advisor

BA Education Antioch University, Doctorate of World Peace from Maharishi European Research University. 22 years published free-lance journalist: magazines, promotional writing and public relations, newspaper correspondent regional newspapers and The Associated Press. Received the Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club in Iowa.  50 years Accomplished professional photographer. Skilled in Photoshop, Graphics and 3-D computer modeling, Websites, copywriting, and development. Currently, Director of the Monterey Transcendental Meditation Center in Monterey, California including the past 18 years. 46-years teaching Transcendental Meditation for non-profit educational and stress management organizations.

Ian Glickman

Psychologist

B.A. Philosophy, M.A. Counseling and Human Development, UI, Ph.D. Counseling Psychology, Leihigh Univ. Fellow: American Institute of Stress. Diplomate: American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, additional War Trauma Certificate. Member: Iowa Psychological Association. VA hospitals: approximately 9,000 veterans seen for mental health evaluations, therapy and group therapy. Devereux Foundation: children’s residential treatment center, thousands of hours of individual therapy, family therapy, couples therapy, group therapy and psycho educational programs. Devereux Foundation Institute of Clinical Training and Research, Villanova, PA: teaching faculty. Immaculata University, Malvern PA: adjunct professor teaching adult development, assessment, communication, occupational stress and conflict resolution. Certified Steven Covey’s Speed of Trust Facilitator. Certified Transcendental Meditation Teacher since 1972.

Jessica Knobloch

Bookkeeping

B.A. in Business Administration, specializing in Business Intelligence & Analytics and Food Marketing, from Saint Joseph’s University in 2019. They currently reside in Colorado, where they solve complex problems for clients through data analytics, customer relationship management, budget optimization, forecasting, database management, and inclusive education and design. Jess is passionate about mental health awareness, organizational and environmental sustainability, allyship, and human rights.

Willy Koppel

Accounting Advisor

B.A. from Amherst College in Psychology, MBA from Northwestern University.  Willy earned his CPA credential in1980 while working for Ernst & Young in Chicago.  He managed his own accounting firm for 13 years followed by another 32 years of work in taxation, financial reporting and accounting oversight for several companies with international scope.  Since 2011 Willy has been the Chief Financial Officer of Global Country of World Peace. He has also been an accounting advisor for numerous non-profit organizations including Maharishi Foundation International, Global Projects for Peace, Institute for Excellence in Africa and others. Willy has been practicing the Transcendental Meditation Program for over 50 years and has been a teacher of the TM Program since 1974.

Tigran Nersisian

Film Director

B.A. film directing, UCLA, is an award-winning film director based in Los Angeles. Born in Yerevan in 1995, he moved to Russia at the age of five. He grew up aspiring to make films but could not realize his dream in Russia. Once he came to the United States, 17-year-old Tigran learned English and began working on projects to fulfill his goals. He was accepted in the undergraduate film program at the University of California, Los Angeles. Tigran’s breakthrough came with his thesis film “Out of Mind” (2019), which was featured at the Pomegranate Film Festival and earned awards in numerous international festivals. Tigran produced and directed “Ending the War Within,” the first documentary on ArmeniaRecoveryNow project to use Transcendental Meditation to reduce war trauma across Armenia. Tigrans owns and runs Byulor Films.

Kenneth B. Rowe

Computer Programmer, Website Support

B.S. Biology, MIU. Computer programmer, senior developer and senior systems analyst. Ken has worked with Customs and Border Protection, Tobacco Trade Bureau (Department of Treasury), Department of Energy, Contract with EES, LLC, Contract with RSIS, Contract with Dyncorp and SCI. He specialties are with Java/Java EE/J2EE, Hibernate/Spring/Spring Boot, Angular/TypeScript, Single Sign-On/WSO2 , Jenkins, React, Junit, Python, GitLab/GitHub/CodeCommit, MIcroservices, NumPy/matplotlib/pandas/scikit learn, JQuery, PostgreSQL/Oracle

Ellen Shapiro

Editor

B.A. biology, Queens College; M.A. education. High school English teacher for 30 years in South Bend, Indiana and Skokie, Illinois. Languages: English, Spanish and Latin.

Eva Vincent

Web Content Administrator & Email Designer

B.A. in graphic design. For the last 4 years, she has managed the one and only Transcendental Meditation center in Montana. She currently lives in Bozeman with her cat Yogi.