My undergraduate degree is from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I studied Russian and international relations. This led me to spend a lot of time in the countries of the former Soviet Union. After college, I took a job as a recruiter for a State Department-sponsored high school exchange program, where I got to travel all over Russia (and for a while, Armenia) to interview teenagers on why they wanted to study for a year in the United States. This, combined with my own experience as a college student studying in Moscow, was my introduction to the field of international education. Then, because I wasn’t sure what to do next and because I just couldn’t let go of the Russian part of my life, I decided to pursue a master’s degree from Stanford University in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies.
I currently work at UW-Madison as the assistant director of an intensive Russian language program for undergraduates of any major. I’ve been with this program for almost a decade and enjoy a wide variety of responsibilities, but I’ve noticed that my absolute favorite projects are those where design, technology, and education intersect. I love the process of analyzing learners’ needs, drilling down to identify performance problems, and brainstorming creative instructional solutions.
