Baku-born, Armenia and Russia-raised Liana Avetian moved back to her homeland in 2010 after living in the US for over 15 years.

While in the US, Liana’s education and work focused on preventative health. After receiving her BA in Nutrition, she received her license as a registered dietitian. But growing up Armenian with a grandmother who would offer herbs as treatment for medical ailments, she knew that Western chemical medicine was only one part of a holistic approach to health. She then pursued Oriental Medicine as a way of complementing her education in Western medicine, and began working in Alternative Health.
 
While working in Boston, she met her husband, also originally from Armenia. “We decided to come back to live and work in a developing country which is our own country, and to try to impact it as much as possible,” she says.

Of course, Liana ran into some challenges upon returning. Her alternative health and nutrition expertise did not seem of interest to Armenians who she says are often in “survival mode,” so preventative health has not been at the top of their priorities.

But she feels the population is progressing and has hope for the younger generation of Armenia, which has more opportunities to participate in new health programs sprouting up within the country, as well as to go outside of the country to receive their education.

While Liana has not yet been applied this particular expertise in Armenia, she has certainly been making an impact in other fields. After having the first of her two sons in 2012, she used her skills in sales gained while working throughout college to improve the customer service in the retail industry at the British brand, River Island. She felt it was her “duty” to bring what she could to help develop this field.
 
She then moved on to work for the magazine Cosmopolitan Armenia until it closed in 2015, where she developed the business side of the magazine for the Armenian market.

Since then, Liana has been loving her work at News Deeply, an innovative media and technology company that develops single-subject platforms covering in-depth social global issues. Liana works to develop partnerships in the Asian and European markets. By engaging policymakers, businessmen and informing the public on global issues, Liana feels her work there is doing social good well beyond Armenia.
 
Liana and her husband now have two sons ages 2 and 4, both born in Armenia. The fact that the country is a safe place to raise children is one of the things she loves most about it, in addition to the general pace that allows people to enjoy their lives.

And of course, she loves that Armenia belongs to her. “The US is a great country, but Armenia is mine,” she says. No matter the difficulties it faces as a developing post-Soviet nation, “it’s ours.”
 
Interviewed and Written By Melanie Nakashian