TUMO CEO Marie Lou Papazian recently announced the appointment of Lorraine Alexander as the first Vice President of Philanthropy for TUMO. “To achieve our mission of making TUMO accessible to every teenager in Armenia, we have hired a professional fundraiser who has world-class expertise and knowledge of the Armenian community,” said Papazian. “With Lorraine on our team, we can dramatically increase the speed of our expansion in Armenia.”
As Vice President of Philanthropy, Alexander will lead fundraising to build new TUMO centers in Armenia and expand the TUMO in a Box program – a network of portable learning units deployed to remote areas beyond the reach of traditional centers. Each TUMO Box can accommodate 250 students. Together, additional TUMO centers and TUMO Boxes will complete the network and ensure that every 12 to 18-year-old in Armenia can access the TUMO program.
Alexander began her career as a political fundraiser – working on local campaigns in Massachusetts and serving as Deputy Finance Director for Paul Tsongas’ presidential campaign – before transitioning to higher education at MIT. In a career spanning three decades, Alexander has served as the first Director of Development for the University of California, Los Angeles’ School of Public Policy, Executive Director of the Los Angeles City College Foundation, a fundraiser for Cure Autism Now and the Caltech aerospace department, and Senior Director of Development for the Neurosciences at Stanford University. In that role, she raised over $100 million for research and endowed professorships during the Stanford Challenge Campaign. In Armenia, Alexander has served as Vice President of Development for the American University in Armenia.
“TUMO is the most exciting and rewarding experience I could ever hope for,” said Alexander. “Anyone who has visited a TUMO center understands the extraordinary opportunities it’s extending to students. Each student customizes their own learning path through a technology and design curriculum that includes robotics, 3D modeling, programming, animation, game development, filmmaking, photography, graphic design, creative writing, music, and more. It’s a new approach to education that countries around the world are clamoring to be a part of. We already have centers in Paris and Beirut, and will be launching TUMO Moscow, Berlin, and Tirana, soon. Many more are to come.”
Sam Simonian, Chairman of the Board of TUMO said, “I worked with Lorraine when she was Vice President of Development for the American University of Armenia and was impressed by her ability to build infrastructure for the Development Department while substantially increasing individual donations. Her organization of the 25th Anniversary AUA Gala was remarkable, something I hope she can duplicate in two years when we celebrate TUMO’s 10th Anniversary.”
On Sunday, January 26th, the Armenian Educational Foundation will be honoring Sam and Sylva Simonian as co-founders of the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies. “This is TUMO’s coming out party,” said Alexander. “We want to become the first country in the world to provide technology education for every student. If the Armenian community comes together, we can easily reach this goal.”
It’s a great strategy!