ADLEA Lead Guides
Meet the people behind ADLEA's strategic leadership roles.
Dr. Alina Vehuni
Founder, Keeper of the Vision
Dr. Alina Vehuni is a visionary educator, international speaker, consultant, and coach whose nearly three decades of work in multilingual education and systemic transformation have been shaped by her own experience of holding Armenian heritage and American life within one identity. As former Teacher Specialist for the Armenian FLAG program in Glendale Unified, she led its evolution from inception into a high-performing dual immersion program through curriculum design, educator training, and community building. She served as an Assistant Principal and a Principal, overseeing multiple educational focus programs and helping each one thrive. Today, as a consultant for LAUSD, she continues shaping the future of Armenian Dual Language Immersion.
She holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the USC Rossier School of Education, has served as a Fulbright Specialist in Croatia, and hosts The Potentiality Podcast, where she brings her work into dialogue with experts across fields. As Founder of Wholeness Education, she leads a global humanistic platform reimagining parenting and education around a singular conviction: that cultivating the inner architecture of the future human is the true foundation of learning, growth, and flourishing. And as Co-Founder of The Freedom School, a worldschooling education model, she helps teenagers learn how to think rather than what to think, combining a guaranteed academic foundation with self-directed projects, live seminars, and mentorship from its global community.
Dr. Vehuni champions dual language education as a catalyst for global competence and cognitive advantage. Through ADLEA Inc., the Armenian Dual Language Educators Association, she leads a global, grassroots movement built by educators, for educators, to uplift Armenian language, identity, and cultural intelligence through dual language education. The organization brings together educators, families, leaders, and advocates in Armenia and across the diaspora to strengthen Dual Language Immersion programs, elevate both Eastern and Western Armenian to equal footing as standardized literary traditions, and equip the next generation of learners to become bilingual, biliterate global citizens.
Dr. Mariné Avagyan
ADLEA Professional Growth Guide
Dr. Mariné Avagyan is an educational leader, leadership coach, and international keynote speaker whose more than 25 years of work in language development, teaching and learning, and leadership have been shaped by her own experience as a multilingual learner. She was instrumental in the growth of the Armenian language program in Glendale Unified School District, where she guided its transition into a dual immersion model and its expansion to a second site, and supported dual language immersion across the district's languages. She later led the school where the program began, which earned several state honors under her leadership. As a district director of curriculum and instruction and of equity and access, she led professional learning, English Learner programs, and state and federal policy implementation serving tens of thousands of students. Today, as an education consultant and trainer, she provides professional learning and 1:1 instructional coaching for public and private school educators in instruction, lesson design, curriculum development, social-emotional learning, student engagement, and English Language Development. Most recently, as a consultant with the Los Angeles County Office of Education's Multilingual Academic Support Unit, she was the lead author of its Designated and Integrated English Language Development professional learning modules and trained the trainers who lead implementation in districts across the county.
She holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the USC Rossier School of Education, a BCLAD certification in Armenian, and the Professional Certified Coach (PCC) credential from the International Coaching Federation. She is the Founder of Avagyan Consulting LLC, through which she coaches and trains leaders across industries. She is also the creator of The P.I.T. Collective™, a leadership development space, and Own Your Leadership™, a 90-day private coaching program for emerging and established leaders. She serves on the Funding Work Group of Californians Together's Multilingual Education for All (MLE4All) campaign, which is developing policy recommendations for state legislation to establish a comprehensive multilingual education system in California. A leader since 2008 in The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International (DKG), an organization of key women educators in 17 countries, she chairs its International Leadership Development Committee and serves as the Second Vice President of DKG California. She has facilitated workshops and delivered keynotes for educators across the United States and internationally. Her contributions to Armenian language education have been recognized with a Commemorative Medal from the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia.
Dr. Avagyan champions multilingualism as a catalyst for identity, belonging, and leadership. Her expertise includes adult learning and professional development design, language acquisition and English Language Development, curriculum and assessment, policy analysis and implementation, and leadership coaching. As ADLEA's Professional Growth Guide, she brings this same commitment to growing educators and leaders to the work of building professional learning and leadership pathways. That work helps Armenian Dual Language Immersion educators and leaders thrive and sustain the programs their communities depend on.
Dr. Stella Gukasyan
Dr. Stella Gukasyan is a transformational healthcare and education leader with over 20 years of experience advancing organizational performance, program innovation, and systems transformation. Her work spans across healthcare, government, academia, and community-based organizations, where she has led complex federally and state-funded initiatives, multidisciplinary teams, and strategic partnerships. Through implementation science, program evaluation, and evidence-based leadership, she translates research and innovation into sustainable organizational and population-level impact.
Dr. Gukasyan champions collaborative leadership as a catalyst for organizational excellence and measurable impact. Her expertise includes primary care transformation, population health, behavioral health integration, infectious diseases prevention, quality improvement, workforce development, and health equity. She is committed to building high-performing systems, strengthening cross-sector partnerships, and developing the leaders and infrastructure needed to translate evidence into lasting change. She brings this same commitment to evidence-based leadership and systems thinking to her role as ADLEA's Research and Data Guide, helping translate what the field learns into practices that strengthen Armenian Dual Language Immersion Programs for educators and learners alike.
Dr. Regine Muradian
Dr. Regine Muradian is a licensed clinical psychologist, author, speaker, and expert TV commentator. In her clinical practice, Dr. Muradian works with children, adolescents, and adults presenting with a wide range of emotional stressors. She specializes in anxiety, ADHD, depression, executive functioning, and leadership mental health training, and is a Certified Clinical Anxiety Treatment Professional (CCATP). She is fluent in multiple languages and incorporates her multicultural background into her practice and trainings.
Dr. Muradian has led mental health trainings nationally and internationally for many organizations, training employees on mental health wellness in France, Greece, Morocco, and London. She is a nationally and internationally sought-after media expert on a wide variety of topics and has been featured by NBC, ABC, Cheddar, Fox, MSN, Huffington Post, Nike, HLN, and CBS, among others.
She received her undergraduate degree in International Relations/Business Marketing from the University of Southern California, followed by a master's degree and a doctorate in Clinical Psychology. She completed her training at Cedars-Sinai, Children's Hospital, and the Glen Roberts Child Study Center.
Luiza Cortezian
Luiza Cortezian is a global brand strategist and marketing executive whose two decades of experience building and scaling brands across cultures, languages, and markets have been shaped by a lifelong love of language itself: she has studied 10 languages and speaks seven, a passion that quietly runs beneath every brand she has built.
Her career spans some of the most recognized names in global marketing and technology, including Sony, PlayStation, PSI Services, and Talogy, where she was repeatedly the person entrusted to bring order and identity to complexity, her work requiring her to carry a single brand story across languages and cultures. As Talogy's SVP of Marketing, she led the consolidation of 17 distinct entities into one cohesive global brand. Before building brands, she spent time in the classroom, teaching history at North Hollywood High within LAUSD.
She holds a dual undergraduate degree in Diplomacy and World Affairs and Spanish Literary Studies, along with a Master's degree in International Business. Luiza champions language learning as a catalyst for human connection and global understanding. As ADLEA's Brand Strategy Guide, Luiza brings that same instinct for building brands that unify people across markets, languages, and cultures to the work of positioning Armenian Dual Language Immersion as a name and a movement recognized in Armenia, across the diaspora, and throughout the global education field.
Lia Harutyunyan
Lia Harutyunyan is a strong advocate for the Armenian Dual Language Immersion programs and an aspiring leader who loves Armenian language, culture, and education. Having participated in the Armenian DLI personally, she brings first-hand knowledge and an authentic learner perspective to ADLEA's mission of creating programs that help youth develop their language skills and cultural identity.
As Student Voice Guide at ADLEA, Lia aims to make sure that learner perspectives are included in discussions about Armenian Dual Language Immersion. She works with learners and families in community outreach to increase opportunities for the next generation to learn the Armenian language in the immersion model.