Executive Staff
Tina Hovsepian, a designer and philanthropist, graduated from the University of Southern California with her Bachelors of Architecture in 2009. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Tina always had a consuming interest in humanitarian causes, especially the plight of the homeless on Downtown’s infamous Skid Row. During her time at USC she had the opportunity to synthesize this interest with her architectural studies. In 2007 she designed and built a prototype of a temporary shelter made of folded cardboard, Cardborigami. Tina received Second Prize for Most Innovative at the 2009 USC Undergraduate Symposium for Creative Work. That was the first time an Architecture student had won an award in this school-wide category.
Since then, Tina has successfully launched a non-profit with the shelter product as a centerfold and raised over $1.3 million in funds and in-kind services. Cardborigami, Inc. continues to receive overwhelmingly positive feedback for its innovation and ingenuity in the realm of social entrepreneurship. Within months of public exposure, Hovsepian’s shelter raised interest from 92 different countries, is featured on the Huffington Post, New York Times, LA Times, Interior Design Magazine, and Archinect.
Tina believes that design fundamentally impacts the daily life of our society. Architects are armed with aggressively creative ideas and new approaches to old problems. With more designers focusing their talent on socially responsible design, the world would be a better place.
To learn more about Tina, read her blog at www.cardborigami.com
Connect with Tina on LinkedIn
Board of Directors
Alex Yarijanian is the board chair and founding member of Cardborigami Inc. Having been deeply involved with the organization’s development since its inception; he finds tremendous value in the growth and cultivation of individuals struck by misfortune.
Ararat Alex Yarijanian is currently the Director of Managed Care for 27 ambulatory care centers in 11 counties throughout California and Texas.
Mr. Yarijanian also serves on a number of committees–including membership on the Steering Committee of SafeMed LA (formerly LAC Prescription Drug Abuse Coalition) with LA Care health plan, Kaiser, LA County Department of Public Health combating opioid addiction by creating models of community-based multi-stakeholder vertical integration. In addition to AHLA committees on contracting newsletters monitoring, and a Health Affairs contributing author. As a member of Healthcare Financial Management Association, Healthcare Executives of Southern California, American College of Healthcare Executives, and American Health Lawyers, Mr. Yarijanian takes an active role in shaping the future of the healthcare movement. He is also a graduate student of the MS in healthcare management program at California State University, Long Beach.
Since 2007, Mr. Yarijanian has been directly involved with initiatives within the capacity of strategic planning and implementation; since 2010, entry as senior leadership within the broader health and human services industry, with roles at the intersection of business strategy, planning, and innovation. And a high degree of specialization in the managed care segment of the industry as of 2013. He has been the awardee of numerous grants and recognitions for innovation.
“I have been Inspired by Tina’s inventive outlook in addressing age-old social dilemmas such as homelessness due to poverty or large-scale disasters. Both of which are harsh realities faced by many individuals and families across our globe.”
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Advisory Board
Peter Samuelson has been described as a “serial pro-social entrepreneur”. In 1983, inspired by a little boy battling an inoperable brain tumor, Peter conceived of the Starlight Children’s Foundation —- an international charity dedicated to granting wishes for seriously ill children. Starlight has grown to offer eight core psycho-social programs, each restoring some of the laughter, happiness and self-esteem that serious illness takes away from kids and those who love them.
As parents and healthcare providers confirmed the positive psychological and often medical impact of Starlight programming, in 1990 Peter brought together leaders including Steven Spielberg and General Norman Schwarzkopf to create Starbright World an online social network to educate, encourage and empower children to cope with the medical, emotional and social challenges of their illness. In 2005, Starlight and Starbright World completed a formal merger and became the Starlight Children’s Foundation, with offices throughout Australia, Canada, The United Kingdom, Japan and across the United States. Starlight now has a combined operating budget of $50 million and serves over 5 million children annually. Since inception, Starlight has raised and deployed internationally over $1 billion and served 60 million seriously ill children.
In 1999, Peter co-founded with Sherry Quirk, First Star, a separate national 501(c)(3) charity headquartered in Washington, D.C. that works to improve the public health, safety, and family life of America’s abused and neglected children.
With Peter as President, First Star provides “top-down” systemic leadership to provide quality and compassionate care for children within the child welfare system, basic civil and legal rights for every child and safe, stable and permanent homes for all children. First Star’s program to create permanent residential high schools for Foster Children on university campuses nation-wide began at UCLA in 2011, and has thus far replicated to the University of Rhode Island and George Washington University in the District of Columbia. Negotiations are underway to expand to campuses in Northern California, Illinois and Connecticut.
In 2008, Peter founded EDAR, “Everyone Deserves A Roof” to develop and widely distribute through established service agencies a mobile single-user homeless shelter on wheels. EDARs cost $500 each and so far 300 homeless clients use them nightly.
Peter is a graduate of Cambridge University with a Masters in English Literature and the fourth of five family generations employed in the film industry. After serving as production manager on films such as The Return of the Pink Panther, he emigrated from England to Los Angeles and produced Revenge of the Nerds, Tom & Viv, Wilde, Arlington Road and 20 other films. Peter served on the founding Board of Participant Media Inc., Jeff Skoll’s pro-social media company. Peter Samuelson is President of ASPIRE, the Academy for Social Purpose in Responsible Education, whose undergraduate courses are piloted at UCLA in early 2014.
Connect with Peter on LinkedIn