Adam Torres and Elen Asatryan discuss the City of Glendale.
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Show Notes:
In this Mission Matters episode, Adam Torres interviews Elen Asatryan, Mayor of Glendale, during the Girls Power Network event in Beverly Hills. Elen shares how her passion for impact—not politics—led her to office and how she’s using her platform to amplify women’s voices, dismantle bias, and lead meaningful change in local government.
About Elen Asatryan
Glendale Mayor. Founder and lead consultant of The Stark Group with over 20 years of experience in leading successful political and public affairs campaigns, nonprofits, initiatives, and grassroots movements for local, state, federal offices and policies.
Prior to founding The Stark Group, for over 11 years, Elen served as the Executive Director of the nation’s largest and most influential Armenian political grassroots organization, the Armenian National Committee of America; first at its Glendale chapter for over 6 years then the Western-Region offices, where she was responsible for strategy, policy development and implementation, crisis management, communications, programs, fundraising, and day-to-day operations of the regional headquarters along with its local ANCA chapters in the 19 Western U.S. States.
She holds a strong track record of establishing innovative strategies, activating supporters and turning out record-breaking number of voters in some of the most competitive and heated local, state, and federal elections.
Elen has also served and continues to serve on various Committees and Boards of local and regional organizations including her appointment to the City of Glendale Parks, Recreation and Community Services Commission.
Watch Full Interview:
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today I’m in Beverly Hills, California at A-G-P-N-A Girls Powered Network Event.
And let me tell you, we’ve been having all kinds of fun so far. The the event is beautiful and I was able to snag the mayor of Glendale Ellen from the VIP. I said, Ellen, come on. You’ve been on the show before in your. City Now we’re in Beverly Hills. I gotta get you back at the show. Welcome back. I, I mean, I gotta start off by saying Glendale’s better.
So Glendale’s always better. I’m in. I’m glad you’d be here for a good cause. Amazing, amazing. So I know you came out and, uh, and, and the first time we met, I believe it was at the Biohacker Beauty event in Glendale, which is part of our Glendale Tech Week. Absolutely. Was absolutely amazing. Um, so I, I wanted to, I didn’t get to ask you this question last time.
How did you get involved and how did you, um, uh, learn about. GPN or Girls Power Network in the first place? Uh, well I got in, I mean, those are two separate questions. Yeah. So how I got involved was, uh, back in, gosh, in the nineties. Yeah. When I was 15. Um, I. Went and volunteered for a political campaign. And then by the time I was 19, I was campaign manager, went on to be the executive director for the Armenian National Committees, Glendale Chapter, then the Western region, and overseeing 19 states.
Had my own political consulting firm. Never had plans to run for office. Yeah. Got pissed off during COVID, um, and decided I’m gonna run. And so here we are. Yeah. Uh, but. Um, blend Dutch is not just known as a regional connector city, and we’ve had Glendale Tech Week for nine years now. Mm. Uh, but I think it’s really important for us to uplift marginalized voices, and that’s something that I’ve mm-hmm.
Been pushing for since my time on council and even during my. You know, advocacy days Yeah. Prior to, and that also includes very heavily emphasizing how we uplift, uh, the voices of women and girls. Mm. Uh, the kind of programming we contribute to, and how we encourage them to take up their space, whether it’s in politics, whether it’s in beauty.
Yeah. Whether it’s in their, you know, private practices. Yeah. Pause, don’t move. I forgot to turn the sun, didn’t I? Yep, I sure did. We’re fine. This is still recording. I just like to turn that on so people can hear you talk as well. Okay. There we go. So now we should be good. All right. All right. Um, yep, that’s all good.
We’re good. Alright. So, um, that’s amazing and to think about how you got. Started in politics in general, you had this feeling of like, things weren’t getting done, there was a better way to do this. You go out, you’re campaigning like, what was that like? Like can you take me, keep me in the early days just a little bit longer.
That’s Are you talking about like when I was a teenager being involved? No, I’m talking about when you decided during COVID. Like at that point you’re So it wasn’t new to me because for the 20 years prior to that, yeah, I was. Uh, I started off being a canvasser that went door to door to then running the field program, then being a campaign manager, then being a political consultant.
So I was actually the person that put the strategy together behind, like the candidates and campaigns before. But you usually don’t go from being the, the strategist and the consultants to the candidate. Mm. Um, and so, um, I think for me specifically, I’ve always been driven. By impact. Yeah. Um, and for me, uh, running for office.
Uh, was just creating more impact on a local level. Did you know at the time, like, did you, like benefits of hindsight? You know, like did you know at the time that a goal was to be mayor one day? Was that kind of like goal? No, I never, I never had plans to run for office. Mm-hmm. Like I said before, for me it’s, it really was about impact.
Mm-hmm. So whether it was in my early days of working on campaigns mm-hmm. To then. You know, working for an advocacy organization and then moving on to my own political consulting firm. Mm-hmm. All of those steps were really driven by my desire to leave an impact in my broader community. Hmm. Lemme grab this real quick.
We’re good. Here you go. You can get it is, this is all edited. Don’t worry. This is all edited. I just wanted you to get your thing. Okay. Uh, so. So now bringing us to present day, today’s event, GPN. Mm-hmm. Um, I believe you’re gonna be, um, we have an award as well. Yes. Like, congratulations. Thank you. Yeah. So talk, talk a little bit about just GPN and like your partnership with them overall.
Like, this is our second event I’ve seen you at and, uh, I think you’ve really been supportive. So I think anything that uplifts women and girls, you’ll find me there. Uh, ’cause I also recognize that while we have made a lot of headway in this space mm-hmm. Uh, there’s a long way to go. I always talk about the fact that, uh, while I take Men’s Pride in being the first Armenian women, yeah.
The first immigrant and women. At 41, the youngest women at surround the City Council and be mayor, that should never be the case in 2025. Mm. Um, and I see this time and again, whether it’s in my elected position or in my work outside, uh, out in the community Yeah. How to date, uh, women still have to prove their worth at the table.
Hmm. And the great need we have in dismantling a lot of. I call like unconscious biases too. Mm-hmm. Uh, where people don’t even realize how they treat women differently Yeah. Or women leaders differently and what a different standard that sets. Mm-hmm. And so any room that, um, you know, and any organization including the role network mm-hmm.
That. Allows women to come together and create that space for empowerment, yeah. Is absolutely critical for us to move the needle forward. Amazing. Last question. Uh, I know they, I know I, but they might even be calling you right now. So last question there. Everybody’s looking at me. Story of my life. Exactly.
Yeah. So what’s next for you? What’s next for you? What’s next for, uh, Ellen? I don’t, so very similar to not knowing. Yeah. I was gonna run for office. I never make plans. I think I just go with my gut. Yeah. Um, so we’ll see where the journey takes me. Um, I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to. At least complete some of the big things that I came in to do.
Mm-hmm. Uh, which I feel very confident about. Mm-hmm. Um, during my tenure, and I don’t know if I’ll run for reelection or I’ll go back to my political consulting. I mean, I’ll, I’ll remain in the political world Of course. Yeah. Uh, ’cause that’s always been, but I’m my, but I’m the story first either way. Right?
Like, I’m getting the call. I mean, yes, yes. You are getting the text message. You’re not getting the call, but you’re getting the text message. But I need the recording and it’s going on the podcast. Ellen’s running, running again, you, no. All right. I didn’t. Say that. Yes. No, no. Please don’t. I did not say that.
I did not say that. I did not. So well, let’s see where, you know, um, I’m, I’m hopeful. So right now I’m on the only woman on the Glendale City Council. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. My hope is that my presence there also inspires other women and girls to run, and my hope is that in the upcoming elections mm-hmm. We see. Not just more women candidates, but structures around those candidates to help them actually win.
Mm-hmm. And then be successful when they’re elected. Amazing. Uh, last thing I want you to do, look into the camera. If people wanna follow you, follow your career, learn about the city of Glendale, how do they do it? Um, you can, I’m most active on Instagram. My handle’s, uh, Ellen Ian, it’s E-N-A-S-A-T-R-Y-E-N.
It’s that Armenian name that, oh yeah, well, we’ll have links. Don’t worry, we’ll have links in the show notes. Um, and of course the City of Glendale is handle is my Glendale. So, um, stay in touch and stay active. Amazing. If everybody watching, uh, don’t worry about the spelling of that name. Um, we’re gonna have links in the show.
I’m not worried. I know. I didn’t say you, I said for everybody watching. All right. Uh, we’ll have links in the show notes so that you can just click on ’em and head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button.
This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And Ellen, thank you so much for coming on this show, show. Thank for having me. Absolutely.
