Ms. Karapetyan is the Deputy Head of the Public Defender’s Office in Yerevan, Armenia, and has over 15 years of experience in the fields of criminal justice, research and training, human rights and administrating indigent legal aid delivery systems. She holds a PhD in Jurisprudence from Yerevan State University (Armenia), and a master’s degree in Jewish Civilizations from the University of Heidelberg (Germany). In her current role, she supervises the work of public defenders and makes high-level policy decisions for the Office of the Public Defender. Over the course of her career, she has led and participated in initiatives that have helped further the development of state-guaranteed legal aid in Armenia. Among her many achievements is the major role she recently played in launching a software program that enables centralized and uniform administration of indigent legal aid cases in Armenia. Ms. Karapetyan has conducted training on human rights for the armed forces of Armenia and has worked as a Council of Europe expert providing expert opinion on the Judicial Code of the Republic of Armenia, bringing it in line with international and European standards. During her fellowship year, she would like to collaborate with academics, lawyers and human rights activists to bolster her advocacy and leadership skills through the exploration of theory and case study.