SOAR - Portland (OR) Chapter

Portland became part of the SOAR family in August 2013, joining SOAR-Seattle in the Pacific Northwest. Meeting an Armenian in Portland is not a common occurrence, with approximately 300 Armenians families residing in and around the city. Most Armenians in Portland are second, third and fourth generation Armenian-Americans, while others come from Armenia and various other countries of the Armenian Diaspora.

SOAR Promotional Video

Special thanks and credits for this video to:

Armen Tshagharyan at ROMB Studios  – Visit his YouTube Channel HERE

Ani Djefarian

SOAR Portland (OR) Chapter

BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

Gregory Petrossian
President

Gregory (Greg) Petrossian is a Portland, OR native. In his youth he was a student of the Armenian Community of Oregon and a member of St. Kevork’s Armenian Apostolic Church of Oregon. After he visited Armenia for the first time in 2006, he vowed to find an opportunity in the states to help orphaned kids like the ones he met in Karabakh and Yerevan. After all these years searching for such an opportunity, he was ecstatic to serve as a member of SOAR’s Baltimore Chapter in 2015 while living there for grad school. He boomeranged back to Portland in 2017 and was offered the opportunity to revive the SOAR Portland Chapter in 2019 as President. Greg strives to organize fun, family-friendly fundraising events to bring the Armenian community closer together for a great cause.

Greg earned his B.S. degrees in Microbiology and Bioresource Research, as well as a B.A. in International Studies from Oregon State University. He then moved to Baltimore, MD to earn his M.S. in Healthcare Management from Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. He now works as Director of Sales at SkyPoint Cloud, a Portland-based data solutions company.

Soseh Axian Hakopian
Vice President

Soseh Axian Hakopian is a native Californian. In her youth, she attended Davidian & Mariamian Armenian School and volunteered with the Armenian National Committee of America. She grew up playing basketball and was a girl scout for the Homenetmen Burbank Sipan Chapter, where her father is a founding member.

Soseh studied children’s rights and the refugee crisis abroad at Zhejiang University Guanghua Law School 光華法學院 in Hangzhou, China, where she analyzed the impact of China’s—more recently abandoned—one child policy as well as societal beliefs and circumstances that result in many women abandoning their newly born female babies.

Soseh earned her Bachelor’s degree in Accounting with a minor in Economics and has been a licensed Real Estate Salesperson in commercial real estate for over a decade. Soseh also studied law abroad at the Université Nice Sophia Antipolis Faculté de Droit et Science Politique in Nice, France, and earned a Juris Doctor from Lewis & Clark Law School.

She left Portland at the start of the year to work for the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Diego. She currently travels between Portland and San Diego.

Tanya Eskadari

Tanya Eskandari grew up in Portland, OR. In her youth, she was a student of the Armenian Community of Oregon. As an adult, she taught Armenian language at the Hovannes Tumanyan school for several years. Having attended an international K-12 school, she is lucky enough to have dear friends living all across the globe. Growing up with such diversity simultaneously made her exceptionally proud of her Armenian heritage and passionate about improving the world.

Tanya earned her B.A. in Business Management as well as a B.A. in Political Science at Portland State University. Upon graduation, she was the Program and Marketing Manager at the Tualatin Chamber of Commerce. In late 2019, she transitioned into a career in Project Management.

Volunteering is a paramount part of Tanya’s life. She has been active in many both international and Portland communities. Some particular favorites of hers are playing piano at local senior homes and leading STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) programs at her local elementary school.

She and her dog relocated to Los Angeles in late 2021.

Tatevik Mazmanyan

Tatevik Mazmanyan was born in Russia to Armenian parents, who immigrated to Russia before the fall of the Soviet Union. She moved to Los Angeles when she was 8 years old, and calls Portland home since 2008. She graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Science in Human Physiology. She works in research in the department of neurology at OHSU. Her goals in life are to help Armenians in need wherever and whenever she is able and happy to be a part of SOAR Portland.

Brian Dikran Moreland

Brian Dikran Moreland was born and raised in Southern California. He is no stranger to the story of Armenian orphans as he grew up attending fundraising events for his Grandmother’s and Great Aunt’s organization in Los Angeles, the Greek-Armenian Association.

Brian served in the United States Marine Corps from 2009-2014. After his tour in Afghanistan, he became committed to finding ways to do good in the world. When his enlistment ended, he went on to earn an A.A. degree in Philosophy from Fresno City College, a B.A. in International Policy, and a M.A. in International Policy and Development from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

During his studies, Brian spent the summer of 2018 discovering his roots and volunteering in Vanadzor, Armenia through Birthright Armenia. He returned to Armenia in 2019 to study Armenian language through Arizona State University’s Critical Languages Institute programming.

Brian moved to Oregon in late 2019, and works in the crypto industry. He resides in Salem with his wife, daughter, and dog.