 mais vanoyan senior fellow mais vanoyan is a senior team leader at a usaidfunded local government program implemented by the research triangle institute international in armenia he received his masters degree in geophysics from yerevan state university in 1977 and his phd from st petersburg mine institute russia in 1986 since independence mais has taken lead positions with a number of international ngos including save the children and urban institute as part of his tenure at these institutions he has built an extensive record of dealing with decentralization and civil society issues leading directions on citizen participation citizen awareness youth involvement capital investment planning and public service delivery of local governments including housing waste water management while with the government of armenia in early1990s he worked on new administrative territorial division of armenia and the law on local government no  