Ani Schug is a proud Armenian Diasporan by way of Philadelphia. A graduate of the local Armenian school, she has her Bachelor’s Degree from Pomona College in Politics and Middle Eastern Studies.

Ani currently works at an immigrant and refugee non-profit in Philadelphia, PA as a DOJ Accredited Representative. She proudly represents and works alongside her clients to reunite with their families, become permanent residents, defend against deportation, or apply for citizenship. She speaks and has studied Armenian, Arabic, Spanish and Swahili. Ani also has experience creating and running community-based programs including language classes and after-school programs for a variety of ages. She has a newly growing interest in learning traditional Armenian embroidery and textile arts.

Ani loves her work with Anoush on the Rerooted Archive as it has connected her with one of the strongest Armenian communities-the one that in fact printed the Armenian textbooks she learned from as a kid. She is eager for you to listen to the words of our narrators and re-examine topics such as Diaspora identity, gender, class, and minorities in the Middle East.

Anoush Baghdassarian is a proud Armenian with roots across the diaspora. She is a licensed attorney in New York and received her Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School to work in international law.

Anoush clerked on the Second Circuit for the Honorable Joseph F. Bianco. Previously, as the Harvard Law School International Legal Studies Fellow, she served as a Visiting Professional at the International Criminal Court. Anoush received her Master’s in Human Rights Studies from Columbia University and holds a Bachelor's Degree from Claremont McKenna College in Psychology and Spanish with a sequence in Holocaust and Human Rights studies. She has served as an advisor to the Armenian Permanent Mission to the United Nations and as an intern at the Ombudsman Human Rights Defender’s Office in Yerevan, Armenia.

Additionally, Anoush is a published author of a historical fiction play about the Armenian Genocide entitled FOUND which has been presented at book events around the world and produced for stage productions in New York and California. Anoush strongly believes in the power of storytelling and preserving history, so co-creating Rerooted with Ani has been one of the most meaningful experiences she has had.