WATERTOWN, MA--The Executive Committee of the Armenia Tree Project (ATP) announces the hiring of Jeanmarie Papelian, Esq., as Executive Director of the organization. Managing Director Tom Garabedian is retiring as part of a planned transition of the leadership team after ATP’s 20th anniversary celebrations last year. 

Jeanmarie is an experienced non-profit volunteer with more than 20 years of successful fundraising event planning and volunteer experience. She was the chairperson of the Armenian Children’s Milk Fund since 1997 and has served on the Board of Directors of the Armenian Missionary Association of America since 1998. Jeanmarie has served as Vice President, the chair of the Development Committee, and chair of the Avedisian School committee in recent years. 

Jeanmarie has 23 years of experience as a trial lawyer in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and was named to Woodward and White’s “Best Lawyers in America” in Family Law from 2008 to 2015. She worked for more than two decades at McLane, Graf, Raulerson & Middleton, which is knows as Northern New England’s pre-eminent law firm. She attended McGill University and received her JD from Suffolk University Law School. 

“I have admired ATP’s excellent work for years and had the pleasure of working with their staff in Armenia through my work with the AMAA to establish to the green roof gardens at the Avedisian School in Yerevan,” noted Jeanmarie. “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to help ATP improve Armenia’s environment.” 

“With the support of nearly 20,000 donors from around the world, we have planted nearly five million trees in Armenia in 20 years. It’s been a huge accomplishment for which everyone is grateful,” noted ATP Founder Carolyn Mugar. “At the same time, we recognize the need for improvement and growth in many areas, and we are confident that Jeanmarie will be a catalyst to bring ATP into the future of tree planting, education, and environmental stewardship in Armenia. We are honored to have such an accomplished development professional as part of our leadership team.” 

ATP’s mission is to assist the Armenian people in using trees to improve their standard of living and protect the environment, guided by the desire to promote self-sufficiency, aid those with the fewest resources and conserve the indigenous ecosystem. ATP's three major programs are tree planting, environmental education and sustainable development initiatives.