| Meet the Flagship Team |
Dr. Michael NugentDr. Michael Nugent is deputy director of the National Security Education Program (NSEP), and director of The Language Flagship. Before coming to NSEP, Dr. Nugent worked on a number of international grant programs at the U.S. Department of Education. These include developing and directing the U.S.-Brazil Higher Education Consortia Program and the North America Mobility in Higher Education Program at the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE). He also served as Chief of Section, overseeing the Title VI funding of National Resource Centers, Foreign Language and Areas Studies grants, and the Language Resource Centers. Dr. Nugent has served in policy positions as Vice President for Administration and Research at the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) in Washington DC, and Deputy to the Chancellor for Systems Relations for Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. Author of “The Transformation of the Student Career: University study in Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands” (Routledge, 2004), he remains active in the field of international higher education policy. Dr. Nugent has a PhD in higher education from Pennsylvania State University. He has been both a student of language and literature at universities in Germany, France, and Spain. Email:
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Dr. Robert SlaterDr. Robert Slater joined the National Security Education Program (NSEP) in 1992 and has served as its director since 1996. As director of NSEP he oversees the program’s aggressive efforts to expand opportunities for U.S. students to study in and about areas and languages of the world critical to national security. He is also the principal architect of The Language Flagship. Dr. Slater has also developed the concept for a new federal National Language Service Corps designed to address needs for language expertise throughout the federal sector. Prior to joining NSEP, Dr. Slater directed a series of programs for the federal government designed to improve relationships between the higher education and federal sectors on issues related to the Third World. Dr. Slater has served as Chair of the national security community’s Foreign Language Committee and represented the federal government on numerous panels and commissions to address foreign language education issues in the United States. Dr. Slater earned a doctorate in international affairs from the School of International Service, The American University, in 1974 and a BA in English from St. Lawrence University. He has published numerous books and articles on international politics, specializing on issues related to globalization. Email:
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Mr. Ed McDermottEd McDermott joined The Language Flagship in August 2008 as the Senior Program Manager. Before coming to NSEP, he was Senior Program Officer for several Title VI programs at the U.S. Department of Education. He managed and oversaw the International Research and Studies, the Language Resource Centers, as well as the National Resource Centers and Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships grant programs. Mr. McDermott previously served as Senior Program Coordinator at the National Foreign Language Center overseeing federal grants. He has worked within or on behalf of the higher education community for fifteen years. Mr. McDermott currently serves on the Inter-Agency Language Roundtable Steering Committee and as a Senior Advisory Board Member for the Office of Director of National Intelligence Centers for Academic Excellence program. He has served on the Center for Advanced Study of Language/University Affiliated Research Center Advisory Committee and its Less Commonly Taught Language, Second Language Acquisition, and National Language Conference Committee working groups. In the past, he contributed to the Defense Language Transformation Team Planning Committee, the Foreign Language Executive Committee, and the Partnership for Public Service. Ed McDermott holds a BA in History from Frostburg State University and has completed graduate coursework at Frostburg State University and University of Virginia. His professional experience and interests are in federal foreign language support and foreign language instructional enhancement. His work has included research on foreign language programs and their impact. He is interested in bringing rigorous analysis to demonstrate the effectiveness of the federal foreign language investment. Email:
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Ms. Laura PorterLaura Porter joined the National Security Education Program (NSEP) in June 2008 and serves as the communications strategist. She manages the content and production of the Flagship newsletter, Discourse, as well as a number of other communications-related activities. Ms. Porter is also the media contact for NSEP. Prior to joining NSEP, Ms. Porter spent nearly six years at Sprint Nextel on the corporate communications team. Ms. Porter most recently served as the company’s spokesperson in the Mid-Atlantic region educating the media on Sprint Nextel’s products and services. In her previous role with the company, Ms. Porter led Nextel’s community relations efforts including its charitable phone loan program and recycling initiative. Before joining Nextel, Ms. Porter worked both as a broadcast production assistant for an advertising agency and as a pre-school teacher for several years in her home state of Connecticut and in the northern Virginia area. Ms. Porter has a BA in Communications from the University of Delaware. She currently resides in Arlington, VA with her husband, daughter, and dog. Email:
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Ms. Kaveri AdvaniMs. Kaveri Advani joined The Language Flagship in 2009 and is currently the program analyst for Flagship. She conducts research and analysis on Flagship programs and policy. Ms. Advani received her BA in political science and minor in Russian language from Loyola University, New Orleans in 2003. In 2002, Kaveri received a Tcherpennine scholarship to study Russian in St. Petersburg, Russia. After graduation Kaveri spent a year travelling throughout Asia, Australia and New Zealand and worked as an intern for the United Nations Information Center in New Delhi, India. In 2007, she received a Boren Fellowship to improve her Arabic language skills and to conduct research on strategies being developed that address water as a depleting resource in the Middle East. Her research sites were Sana’a, Yemen, and Damascus, Syria. In 2009, Kaveri received her master’s degree from New York University in comparative politics with a focus on the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa. Her research focused mainly on resource politics on local, regional, and global scales. Kaveri is interested in cross-cultural interconnectivity and believes that language acquisition is the first step in bridging cultural divides. T: 703-696-5670 Ms. Sharon NishizakiMs. Sharon Nishizaki is program director for The Language Flagship at the Institute of International Education (IIE), the administrative agent for The Language Flagship Fellowships and Grants, and has served in this role since 2006. Ms. Nishizaki began her affiliation with NSEP in 1997 when she joined the Academy for Educational Development (AED) to manage the David L. Boren Graduate Fellowships. Prior to this, she was employed for 10 years in the Smithsonian Institution’s Office of Fellowships and Grants as a program specialist responsible for the Smithsonian Graduate, Predoctoral, and Postdoctoral Fellowship Programs. She has also worked as a program analyst for Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean at the Inter-American Foundation, an independent agency of the United States government that provides grants to nongovernmental and community-based organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean. Ms. Nishizaki received a BS in Spanish and French from Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia. She has lived extensively in Latin America, having completed much of her primary and secondary education in Mexico and Argentina. Email:
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Dr. Susan DugganDr. Susan Duggan is an independent consultant to the Institute for International Education (IIE) and servers as a senior strategist for The Language Flagship. She has bridged educational, governmental and business sectors over the past 30 years as a researcher, program designer, and strategist. From 1993 to 1998 Dr. Duggan served as the senior policy consultant to NSEP. Prior to that, she co-founded and managed an international education agency opening study abroad and teacher education programs throughout Eastern Europe and Latin America. Dr. Duggan served as Curriculum Director for the Stanford Program on International and Cross-cultural Education; and earlier shaped the "Bay Area and the World Project" for the World Affairs Council in San Francisco, a formative business-education-government project in 1982. In 1996, Dr. Duggan co-founded the Silicon Valley World Internet Center, an internationally recognized think tank and showcase for the advancement of Internet-related products. During the past decade of work with this center she has designed a methodology for conducting effective "think tank sessions," which she has deployed in nine countries.Dr. Duggan has a PhD and master's degree in education, and a BA in anthropology from Stanford University; and a master's degree in political science from Université Laval. Conversant in several languages, she is professionally proficient in German. Email:
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Ms. Meaghan DolanMs. Meaghan Dolan is the program officer for The Language Flagship at the Institute of International Education (IIE). Prior to joining IIE in the fall of 2008, Meaghan was the project coordinator for a congressionally mandated study on public diplomacy. She previously worked for the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University. Ms. Emily MattsMs. Emily Matts serves as the Program Manager, Fellowships and Grants on the administration of The Language Flagship at the Institute of International Education (IIE). Ms. Matts acts as the first point of contact for Flagship Fellows and provides support in the administration of Flagship institutional grants. Before joining IIE in 2006, Emily worked on the administration of Boren Fellowships and Flagship Fellowships at the Academy for Educational Development. Ms. Matts received her BA from Xavier University (OH) in political science and international affairs, with a concentration on the developing world. As an undergraduate, she studied French, literature, and the European Union in France. In addition, she participated in a service learning project in El Salvador. Ms. Matts is currently pursuing her Master’s of Arts in International Education at The George Washington University. Her research interests include internationalization of U.S. higher education and post-conflict education. E:
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Ms. Sarah FormanMs. Sarah Forman joined The Language Flagship at the Institute of International Education (IIE) in July 2008 as a program associate. Sarah serves as the first point of contact for Flagship Fellowship applicants. Sarah earned a BA in foreign affairs and Russian area studies from The University of Virginia in 2007. As an undergraduate, she coordinated a volunteer program providing advising and linguistic services to the international graduate student community. After matriculation, Ms. Forman spent a year in Vladimir, Russia working as a teacher of English as a foreign language. E:
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