I have played a leadership role in the development of courses of study for both students and teachers in both the US and Norway.

At the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, I partnered with colleagues at Duke University as the Director of two Title VI Centers funded by the US Department of Education: the Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies (CSEEES, which I directed 1996-2001), and the Slavic and East European Language Resource Center (SEELRC, which I directed 1999-2006). As Director of CSEEES, in 1999 I led the design of a new MA program in Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies at the University of North Carolina. I applied for and received federal funding to launch this new program from a National Security Education Program Institutional Award from the US Department of Defense. The program is still going strong, as shown at this website. In my capacity as Director of SEELRC, I co-organized annual Summer Institutes on Slavic and Eurasian Language Pedagogy, Research & Testing for K-12 instructors and university faculty across North America. This program is also still in existence, as shown at this website.

At present I am collaborating with UiT leadership in the redesign of the undergraduate programs in Russian and in Russian Studies. I have been particularly active in proposing internship opportunities for the students and new collaborative course content.