Ardashes Kassakhian
Ardashes Kassakhian is the Glendale City Clerk, an elected office.
Born to Dr. Garabed and Loussik Kassakhian in Boston, Massachusetts, Kassakhian's family moved to Glendale 20 years ago. Kassakhian's family also spent two years living in Armenia from 1984-1985. Ardy has two brothers - Harry and Vazken
Ardy attended Glendale High School, where he was involved in student government and journalism.
As a student at University of California, Los Angeles where he studied History, Kassakhian participated in the University's Center for American Politics and Public Policy Program in Washington, D.C. While in Washington, Kassakhian interned in Congress for both Republican and Democratic members' offices. Also as a student leader at UCLA, Kassakhian led the grassroots effort to oppose the establishment of a Turkish studies chair by the Republic of Turkey. The decision was a watershed victory for Armenian-Americans who were concerned about the corruption of American academia by the government of Turkey and its agents of Genocide denials. Ardy studied history with a special emphasis on Armenia and the Near East, and completed the UCLA Center for American Politics and Public Policy Washington, DC program.
In 2000 Kassakhian joined the public relations firm of Stoorza, Ziegaus & Metzger, California’s second largest independently owned firm, which specialized in government relations and public affairs. At Stoorza Kassakhian worked on a variety of issues for both public and private sector clients including Fortune 500 companies and employee unions. During his professional career, Kassakhian has run a number of local, state and federal campaigns to register voters and Get Out The Vote.
Ardy also served as the summer internship coordinator of the Armenian Assembly of America in Washington, DC.
Later, Kassakhian was the Executive Director of Western U.S. offices of a local non-profit which specializes in voters’ rights, advocacy and public policy (Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region). He has worked closely with members of the state legislature and members of the U.S. Senate and Congress on policy issues affecting Glendale and Glendale residents. Kassakhian is the only Glendale resident representing a grassroots organization on the Los Angeles County Clerk's Community Voter Outreach Committee (CVOC). CVOC was created by the County Clerk to look for different methods to raise voter participation in county, state and federal elections. Through his efforts, the County Clerk's office now provides information in numerous languages on how to vote on their website.
During the last 6 years, Kassakhian has helped educate non-English speaking citizens in Glendale about the voting process. He has been a poll worker in Glendale and has helped register hundreds of voters in Glendale and surrounding areas. He has taken his passion for public service and enthusiasm for the political process into the classroom as well lecturing on the importance of civic responsibility to numerous college campus groups and teaching a class in Government and Political History at a private school in Hollywood, California.
Kassakhian became a candidate for City Clerk on November 24, 2004 ("Clerk post up for grabs for first time in 75 years" – Glendale News Press, Nov. 24, 2004) and made outreach, technology and voter education his campaign cornerstones.