Rita Vorperian

Rita Vorperian (Armenian: Ռիթա Որբերեան) is a journalist, writer, translator, and researcher. She has served as teaching fellow and lecturer in Western Armenian at UCLA. She is currently the senior administrator and executive secretary of the Armenian Relief Society in the Western United States.

Life and works
Of Armenian descent, Rita Vorperian was born in Aleppo, Syria and graduated from the local Karen Yeppe Armenian High School. She continued her studies at the St. Joseph University in Beirut where she studied Armenology. After moving to the United States, Vorperian enrolled and graduated UCLA, where she received Bachelor of Arts degree in Near Eastern Studies, Masters Degree in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, and a Doctoral Degree in the field of Armenian literature and literary criticism. Her dissertation is titled A Feminist Reading of Krikor Zohrab. She has a strong interest in feminist topics, about which she made many presentations and contributed articles in Armenian publications in the United States and abroad.

She has been an active journalist and has submitted to many Armenian newspapers such as Aztag (daily) in Beirut, Asbarez in Los Angeles, Artsakank in Cyprus, and Hairenik in Watertown, Massachusetts. She has also contributed to Pakine in Beirut with literary works.

She speaks seven languages including Armenian, French, Arabic, Turkish, English, Spanish and Russian. She is a translator of numerous Armenian books such as Javakhk: A World That Cares by Jennifer Salmassian.

She is also a member of Hamazkayin, a cultural organization of the Armenian Diaspora.

In March 27, 2002 House of Representative Adam Schiff awarded Rita Vorperian with the Glendale Woman of the Year award.