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Newmag publishing house has published new biographical research of Rima Khachatryan, a renowned Armenian educator and educational innovator, whose efforts were aimed at reforming the vocational medical education, introducing and developing life-long learning, as well as executive coaching and training systems in Armenia.

30 of her 55 years as an educator were a time of enormous upheaval, in which she sought to project and protect life-long education as a rare bastion of permanence in a world of shifting values.

She strongly advocated and backed the development of the nurse education - from a group of three colleges in the big cities to a family of 16 educational institutions spanning almost every region of the country.
Being an educational innovator was an ongoing journey for her. It required a commitment to lifelong learning and a passion for improving teaching and learning experiences. So, in 2013, at the age of 75, Rima Khachatryan completed the "Organisation and implementation of instructional programmes aimed at learning outcomes" training-for-trainers' course organized by the National Center for Vocational Education and Training Development and led the efforts of introducing a new educational program for "Pharmaceutics” discipline in medical colleges of Armenia.

"A woman of wisdom, kindness, character, and compassion, Rima Khachatryan was everything a teacher should be," once said Yevgeni Safronov, a renowned painter and a Soviet State Prize winner in 1981. "She exemplified a generation of educators brought up on the principles of comity and compromise, and she embodied those principles better than anyone”.

In 1990’s Rima Khachatryan consistently stood for legal regulation of nursing; she reached across the aisle on issues regarding assessment of the workload of mid-level practitioners and fair pay, and significantly contributed to the elaboration of the RA Law on Medical Assistance and Service to the Population adopted in 1996.

“Her example of dedicated, principled teacher and consistent collegiality is missed but will never be forgotten,” an obituary posted on the Yerevan Basic Medical Colege’s website said.