​I’m a linguist and AI strategist with over 20 years of experience advancing language technologies for complex applications—from legal tech to social media analytics to low-resource language development. Holding a PhD in Linguistics from USC and having served as Principal AI Engineer at MITRE, I blend deep academic training with real-world leadership.

I’m the founder and research director of the Zoorna Institute for Language, AI & Society — we’re a nonprofit research lab focused on developing ethical and inclusive language technologies, especially for low-resource and minority languages like Persian, Kurdish, or Armenian. Our work supports academic research, global advocacy, and educational applications that make AI more equitable.

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I also run Zoorna Technology Solutions, a boutique AI consulting firm that helps nonprofits, researchers, and global teams build ethical, multilingual AI systems. While most consultants focus on efficiency and automation, we specialize in language-aware, human-centered NLP — especially for underrepresented communities and low-resource languages.

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My research bridges artificial intelligence, linguistics, and the social sciences, with expertise in Persian and Armenian, computational social science, heritage language analysis and the syntax-semantics interface. In my current research, I study how linguistic structures inform computational models of meaning, events, and narrative.​​ ​An experienced educator and advocate for AI literacy and diversity in STEM, I co-lead AI4Her, an initiative to empower girls and women through education and mentorship in AI and NLP.

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