Alen Amirkhanian (Director, AUA Acopian Center, Armenia)
Eva Svensson Myrin (Expert, Milav, Sweden)
Harutyun Alpetyan (National Expert, AUA Acopian Center, Armenia)
Lusine Nalbandyan (National Expert, ORWACO, Armenia)
Olimpia Geghamyan (National Expert, Yerevan State University, Armenia)
Sandra Lindblom (Expert, Milav, Sweden)
Tatevik Vardanyan (Grants and Projects Manager, AUA Acopian Center, Armenia)
Therese Rosenblad (Project Manager, LIFE Foundation, Sweden)
Alen Amirkhanian (Director, AUA Acopian Center, Armenia)
Alen Amirkhanian is the Director of the American University of Armenia’s (AUA) Acopian Center for the Environment, a position he has held since 2013. In 2014, he established AUA Center for Responsible Mining and is acting as its Interim Director. He teaches graduate and undergraduate environmental courses at AUA. Prior to AUA, he was Senior Vice President of Research at Michael Porter’s Initiative for a Competitive Inner City. He has consulted with the World Bank, UNDP, and the Brookings Institution on energy efficiency as well as economic and urban-growth issues. His current academic interests include urban environmental sustainability, “greening” the built environment, and circular economy esp. as it relates to “greening” cities. Alen holds a Masters in City Planning (’97) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning.
Eva Svensson Myrin (Expert, Milav, Sweden)
Eva has a long working life behind her and has for almost 30 years worked with different aspects of environmental issues; noise, sewage treatment, management, water treatment, environmental policies. For over six years, Eva worked with training in basic environmental knowledge, inspirational training for management teams, environmental management, environmental auditing and legislation.
For twelve years Eva has worked with different aspects of municipal solid waste management; six years as CEO of a municipally-owned regional waste management company, VafabMiljö, and six years as a consultant. As CEO Eva was responsible for the region’s waste management with 200 employees and 400 million SEK in turnover. The business ranged from strategical planning and waste economy to collection, sorting, processing, combustion and landfilling. At the subsidiary Svensk Växtkraft AB, food waste from the region was digested into biogas, which, within the mission of the company, was upgraded, distributed and sold at public fueling stations. For six years now, Eva has worked as a consultant helping municipalities developing waste management.
Eva has international experience through, among others, missions in Ghana, Poland, Georgia and the European Commission. Eva was also part of the steering group for a biogas project in Bolivia and development of waste management in Botswana. Eva has an MBA from the Gothenburg School of Law and Economics, focusing on international business.
Harutyun Alpetyan (National Expert, AUA Acopian Center, Armenia)
Harutyun Alpetyan is an industrial engineer holding his Master’s Degree from the American University of Armenia College of Science and Engineering. Having his background in Management in Energy Sector, Harutyun has also worked for years in the field of industrial automation and integration as Product Design Development Manager. Interested in energy efficiency and environmental research, Harutyun for several years has been involved in different projects at the AUA Acopian Center for the Environment, where he currently works as a Resource Management Expert and co-teaches courses Solid and Hazardous Waste and Projects in Environmental Science.
Lusine Nalbandyan (National Expert, ORWACO, Armenia)
Lusine Nalbandyan will be providing an institutional and policy analysis of the present biological waste management system in Armenia and its gaps to be aligned with the principles of circular economy. She is an agro-ecologist. Lusine is a co-founder and the managing director at Armenian-Norwegian joint venture ORWACO, producer of certified organic fertilizers made of biological waste. She works as a researcher at “Armenian Women for Health and Healthy Environment” NGO since 2006. Her work involves coordinating projects aimed at rural development, eco-tourism, biodiversity conservation, sustainable organic agriculture including pesticide and POP risk reduction, and organic fertilizer production. Lusine is a board member and a co-founder at “Rural Sustainable Development” agricultural foundation and a board member at “Pesticide Action Network Europe”. As the Head of the Agriculture Department at “NAIRIAN” CJSC, Lusine consults the production of various agricultural crops and herbs used in cosmetics. She is a chairperson of “Armenian Organic Association”.
Lusine holds a Master’s Degree in Agroecology from the Armenian State Agrarian University where she is currently completing her Ph.D. thesis on the efficiency of organic fertilizers.
Olympia Geghamyan (National Expert, Yerevan State University, Armenia)
Olimpia Geghamyan will be providing a legal and institutional analysis of the present waste management system in Armenia and its gaps to be aligned with the principles of circular economy. She is an environmental lawyer, with a Ph.D. in human rights and the environment. Olimpia is an author of 10 articles and publications covering various aspects of human rights and the environment. She has been an active member of Environmental Protection Advocacy Center NGO (EPAC) since its foundation in 1998. Throughout her career, Olimpia has actively contributed to introducing and implementing legislative reforms aimed at improving decision-making mechanisms on environmental issues and public participation therein, increasing public awareness on environmental matters and promoting water rights. She is currently acting as a legislative expert in several programs funded by USAID and UNDP.
Olimpia Geghamyan is a lecturer of Environmental Law at the Yerevan State University School of Law. She is a visiting lecturer in the French University of Armenia, as well as in Academy of Justice of Armenia. Olimpia holds a BA and LLM from Yerevan State University School of Law, where she defended her Ph.D. thesis: Human Environmental Rights in Armenia.
Sandra Lindblom (Expert, Milav, Sweden)
Sandra is a Civil Engineer by training, with an Environmental Technology orientation. She has twelve years’ experience from municipal waste management, of which five years as Operations Manager at the Municipality of Enköping and six years as Development Engineer at the 12-municipality consortium VafabMiljö. She started her career at a recycling centre and is now a consultant in the field of waste management and sustainable development.
With a specific interest in international knowledge exchange, Sandra held the position of International Coordinator at VafabMiljö, including involvement in several international projects, technical visits, trainings and collaborations. For six years, she was the Project Leader for a Municipal Partnership between the cities of Västerås, Sweden and Gaborone, Botswana on developing waste management. She also took part in a waste-to-biogas project in Bolivia, worked with sustainable development in Ecuador, and carried out her Master’s Thesis research at the Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague.
Locally and regionally, Sandra has produced, implemented and evaluated several Strategic Waste Management Plans and Local Regulations on waste management. She has also worked with waste tariff systems, adjusting the waste fees to cover the costs but also to provide incentives for a sustainable waste management at the household level.
Sandra is a communicative problem solver, passionate to raise awareness on the importance of the transition to a more sustainable society.
Tatevik Vardanyan (Grants and Projects Manager, AUA Acopian Center, Armenia)
Tatevik Vardanyan works as a Grants and Projects Manager at AUA Acopian Center for the Environment. She is responsible for supporting the development and writing of grant proposals, managing and coordinating the quality and timeliness of project implementation. In her position, Tatevik is coordinating preparation of contracts, financial reporting, planning and executing stages of the project. She is also maintaining partnerships and other collaborative relationships with a range of local and international stakeholders. Tatevik has served as grant and project manager at the Acopian Center and the AUA Center for Responsible Mining since 2016, she has supported the implementation of the projects in cooperation with the government, international organizations, civil society sector entities. Prior to that, she worked as Operations and Communications Coordinator at the AUA Acopian Center from 2014 till 2016. She holds an LL.M degree from the American University of Armenia and a BA degree from Brusov Yerevan State Linguistic University.
Therese Rosenblad (Project Manager, LIFE Foundation, Sweden)
Therese holds a Master in Political Science and Entrepreneurship. She has fifteen years’ experience from working with International Training Programs at LIFE Academy, out of which ten years she has worked as an International Coordinator, Facilitator and Project Manager. The capacity development training programs target decision makers in the field of Sustainable Development and representatives from over 80 countries have taken part in LIFE Academy’s training programs.
With a special interest in using Pedagogy and Facilitation to develop and increase participants potentials Therese is responsible for the development of the Pedagogical approach in LIFE Academy’s programs. Being an International Coordinator and Project Manager at LIFE Academy includes the overall responsibility of preparing, coordinating and facilitating workshops and trainings around the world, mostly in Sweden, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.
Therese also has a personal interest in Environmental issues such as Energy Efficiency, Sustainable Building and Waste Management. As a person she is a positive, creative problem solver with a passion for building active teams of participants who can come together and use their individual strengths to take concrete steps for the creation of a Sustainable Development.