Recent M.A. Graduates' Profiles
2006 - Sara Slye
- Wenjie Zhang
Topics: Contemporary Russian politics
Language(s): Russian (primary), Czech (rudimentary), Georgian (rudimentary)
MA Thesis: NASHA Pravda, NASHE Delo: The Mobilization of the Nashi Generation in Contemporary Russia
Employment: Robertson Scholars Program, Chapel Hill, NC
Current Address: 108 Ashe St, Carrboro, NC 27510
Email: dougbuchacek@hotmail.com
Doug studied Russian youth political/social movement organizations while pursuing his M.A. from 2004-2006. Currently working for the Robertson Scholars Program of Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill, Doug helps to coordinate the summer enrichment programs and conducts external relations and recruitment. Following his graduation from Purdue in 1999 (B.A., History), he studied Russian in St. Petersburg, and also served in the U.S. Peace Corps, teaching English in Vladimir and Ekaterinburg, Russia, taking the Trans-Siberian out to Lake Baikal (where he also taught at a summer camp), before coming home in 2003. Doug and girlfriend Jodi plan to get married sometime in 2007.
Topic: Russian Foreign Policy
Language(s): Russian, French
MA Thesis: What Right Did Russia Have? Russian Intervention in Georgia and Moldova in the early 1990s
Employment: Consultant, Russian Foreign Policy towards the CIS, in Washington, D.C., metropolitan area
Current Address: 912 1/2 25th ST NW, Washington, D.C. 20037
Email: ginny_muller@yahoo.com
Ginny moved to Washington, D.C., in August and has had a great time getting to know the area. Besides attending conferences at places like the American Enterprise Institute and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, she spends a lot of time staying abrest of current events in Russia and the CIS countries for her job as a consultant.
Topic: Human Rights (particularly women's rights)
Language: Polish
MA Thesis: The "Natasha" Networks: Sex Trafficking in Post-Cold War Europe
Employment: Indiana Department of Child Services
Current Address: Richmond, IN
Email: jmpyclik@yahoo.com
In her current position as staff attorney, Jennifer represents the state of Indiana in child welfare cases (petitioning to make a child a ward of the state, termination of parental rights, child support, foster care licensing, adoptions, etc.) She hopes to one day start a non-profit organization to assist victims of sex trafficking.
- Ben Foster
- Jessica Herzog
- Polina Kozak
Topics: A comparative
study of the Russian and Chinese Governments' FDI policies
Language(s): English
Employment: Deloitte
Current Address: 118 Bim Street, Apt. A
Phone Number: 919-338-8140
Email: mali@email.unc.edu
Li followed up her thesis research of foreign direct investment (FDI) at the Kenan-Flagler School of Business. In May 2006, she earned an MA in Accounting, and began working for Deloitte in September 2006.
Topics: International politics in the Balkans
Language(s): Czech, Serbian
MA Thesis: International Normative Structure in Milosevic's Strategic (Mis)Calculations: NATO Air Bombing Campaign in Serbia 1999
Employment: OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina
Current Address: Jezero 7, Sarajevo
Email: paulinka79@yahoo.com
After two years of soul-searching in Florida and waiting for her American citizenship Polina went to Sarajevo to work for the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina. She is a Junior Consultant at the Education Department working with Access and Non-Discrimination portfolio promoting the culture of tolerance and inter-cultural and inter-religious dialog through education.
- Will Bettmann
- Scott Griffin
- Amanda Jacobson
- Jeff Long
- John Surface
Topics:
20th Century Russian History, Russian Crime
Language(s): Russian
Employment:
Actively seeking employment
Current Address: 245 South 3rd Street.
Apt. 6, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Phone Number: 347-834-1356
Email: nabland@nyc.rr.com
Annie is currently living in Brooklyn, NY, where she is gainfully seeking employment. She focused on Russian Organized Crime in Brighton Beach, NY. Annie enjoys Russian theatre, language, and history, and has visited Russia often, including a summer internship to Siberia.
Topics:
Islam and Chechnya, Eurasia and Russia
Language(s): Russian
Employment:
Foreign Area Officer, US Army
Current Address: 108 Mallard Ct.,
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
Phone Number: 919-933-1208
Email: jljennette@hotmail.com
Jeff is a 1991 graduate of the US Military Academy. He has served in Germany, Kentucky, and Kuwait as an Amor and Cavalry Officer. He has also served as the first Chief of Defense Cooperation in the Republic of Moldova, and traveled the Trans-Siberian Railroad from Vladivostok. Jeff and his wife Amy have two sons.
Topics:
NATO and East Central Europe
Language(s): Czech and Polish
Employment:
Deputy Effects Coordinator, 172nd Stryker Brigade
Current Address: 227
Dunbar Ave, Fairbanks, AK, 99701
Phone Number: 907-452-7321
Email:
sdbeebe@aol.com
Shannon is currently interested in the integration of Eastern European states into the European Union and NATO. He is currently stationed in Alaska, where he works as the Deputy Effects Coordinator for the 172nd Stryker Brigade. Shannon's family consists of his Harley-Davidson named Esmerelda and his dog Rommel.
Topics:
Economics and Natural Resources
Language(s): Russian, Serbo-Croatian,
Bulgarian, Spanish, and French
MA Thesis: The National Fund of Kazakhstan:
A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Internship: Center
for Strategic and International Studies, Russian and Eurasian Program
Current
Address: 1541 C Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003
Phone Number: 202-547-1879
Email: stanislav5@yahoo.com
Jesse graduated from James Madison University in 2000 with a B.A. in Russian Languages and Literatures. In addition to Russian, he studied Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian. Jesse spent a semester abroad in St. Petersburg. His interest lies in the Oil and Gas Pipeline Corporation on the Caspian Sea. Jesse and his wife Kristen live in Washington, D.C., with their two dogs, Banga and Loki.
Topics:
Civil-Military Relations
Language(s): Russian
MA Thesis: A
Decade of Shirking: Russian Civil-Military Relations (1992-2002)
Employment:
Foreign Area Officer, US Army
Internship: Defense
Threat Reduction Agency in Votkinsk, Russia
Current Address: 55
Houston Ave, Newport, RI 02840
Email: normredleg@hotmail.com
Norm is currently working towards an M.A. in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College in Newport, RI. Upon completion of this program, he has been assigned to the Supreme Headquarters, Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Belgium as Special Assistant for International Affairs to the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR). In this position, he will be responsible for the coordination of the NATO-Russia Interoperability Program, and he will act as the special liaison to the Main Operations Directorate, Russian General Staff representative at SHAPE.
Topics:
Economics and Education
Language(s): Russian
MA Thesis: Solutions
Out of Collusions: Reforming the Financing of Russian Higher Education
Employment:
Ph.D Candidate at Indiana University
Internship: Volunteer
teaching and Russian Language study at the Cosmopolitan International Summer Language
School in Novosibirsk, Sibera
Current Address: 2100 E. Lingelbach
Lane, Apt. 307, Bloomington, IN 47408
Phone Number: 812-857-5357
Email: jlou@indiana.edu
Jingjing is currently pursuing her Ph.D degree in Education Policy Studies and International Comparative Education Studies at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. She is building on the research that she began at UNC on Russian higher education reforms and hopes to continue this research at Indiana University, as well as to add Chinese higher education to her research.
Topics:
Organized Crime in Russia
Language(s): Russian
MA Thesis:
The Social, Economic, and Political Impact of Organized Crime in Russia
Employment:
Currently conducting cardiac and trauma research at the Department of Emergency
Medicine at UNC; hopes to begin NC TEACH in the fall
Current Address: 500
Woodcroft Parkway #9B, Durham, NC 27713
Phone Number: 919-402-9559
Email: btrhue@earthlink.net
Tim is currently conducting cardiac and trauma research for the Department of Emergency Medicine at UNC. His career goal is to become a high school social studies teacher. He has applied for admission into the NC TEACH program, a teacher preparation program designed to help individuals become licensed teachers in North Carolina. On a personal note, during the summer, he and his wife Beth spent almost every weekend soaking up the sun on the beaches of Emerald Isle (where Beth's parents live). During the fall, when he wasn't at a UNC football game, he was out in the woods pursuing his new found hobby: deer hunting. Tim and Beth also started taking Shag (dancing) lessons.
Topics:
Croatian History
Language(s): Serbo-Croatian
MA Thesis: The
Insufficiency of the Titoist Interpretation of the Second World War and the Disintegration
of Yugoslavia
Employment: Teaching English in Prague, Czech Republic
Internship:
Croatian Language Program
through KSU in Dubrovnik, Croatia
Current Address: 1211 Ashbrook
Court, Darien, IL 60561
Email: jwansley@hotmail.com
Josh taught English in Prague, Czech Republic, for almost a year before returning to the United States at the end of summer 2004.
Topics:
Russian/US security issues
Language(s): Russian
MA Thesis: From
Ideology To Pragmatism: The Shift In Russian Views Regarding Ballistic Missile
Defense
Employment: Foreign Area Officer, US Army; U.S. Embassy Moscow:
Defense Threat Reduction Program
Current Address: PSC 77, DTRO-M, APO,
AE 09721
Phone Number: 011-7-095-737-5066
Email: jmike1_@hotmail.com
Mike Ashford is a Major in the U.S. Army and serves as a Foreign Area Officer specializing in Eurasia. After graduation, Mike was selected to attend Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth, KS. The majority of his courses focused on security and policy development. He received the 6Z (Army Strategist) designator upon completion of his studies. Mike is currently assigned to the Defense Threat Reduction Office at U.S. Embassy Moscow. He is the Cooperative Threat Reduction Operations Officer and works on projects associated with the Nunn-Lugar Act. His focus areas are Strategic Offensive Arms Elimination, Chemical Weapons Destruction, and Biological Weapons Proliferation Prevention.
Topics:
Czech émigrés
Language(s): Czech
MA Thesis: Kde Domov Muj?
A Study of Czech Émigrés of the Communist Era
Employment: Internal Revenue
Service
Current Address: 1199 Cahoon Rd., Westlake, OH 44145
Email:
ESF0007@aol.com
Emily is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, and a 2000 graduate of The College of Wooster with a B.A. in Political Science. She has studied in Strasbourg, France, and Olomouc, Czech Republic, and is a member of the Phi Sigma Iota foreign language honorary. She is interested in Czech studies and the politics of Central Europe, but particularly in the plight of and politics surrounding Czech and Slovak refugees during the communist era.
Topics:
History/Contemporary Issues in the Balkans, especially Macedonia, and questions
of national identity
Language(s): Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Bulgarian
MA Thesis: Prestige and Provincialism: Shifting Boundaries of Slavic
Identity in Macedonia
Employment: American Councils for International Education
Internship: Month-long Croatian language
course at Sova Language School in Zagreb;
three
week course as part of the International Seminar of Macedonian Language, Culture,
and Literature In OhridEmail: hein@americancouncils.org
Bill Hein is Program Officer for the American Serbia & Montenegro Youth Leadership Exchange, which brings Serbian and Montenegrin high school students to the U.S. Students live with host families and attend high schools throughout the U.S. Part of Bill's job involves educating Americans about Serbian culture, as well as preparing the students for life in the U.S.
Topics:
Russian Environmental Policy
Language(s): Russian
MA Thesis:
Is It Just "Hot Air"? Russia's Participation in the Climate Change Regime
Employment:
Paralegal
Internship: Russian
Summer Language Abroad Program through Arizona State University
Current
Address: 1025 Greenwood Ave, Apt. 5, Atlanta, GA 30306
Phone Number:
919-260-2001
Email: chorn@myrealbox.com
Claire graduated in May 2000 with a B.A. in Russian and East European Area Studies from UNC-CH. She completed her senior honors thesis on the ecological disaster surrounding the drying-up of the Aral Sea in Central Asia. She is interested in studying the environmental problems in Eastern Europe/Eurasia and their policy solutions in a global context. Outside of academic pursuits, she spends time dancing in the studio and occasionally on stage. She served as president of Modernextension, the modern dance group at UNC, in 1999-2000.
Topics:
International Organizations and strategies for property return and refugee resettlement
in Bosnia-Herzegovina
Language(s): Serbo-Croatian
MA Thesis: Coordinating
Ambiguous Mandates in the Return of the Refugees and Displaced Persons in Bosnia-Herzegovina:
The Role of Property and International Organizations
Employment: U.S.
Department of Commerce, Central and East European Business Information Center
Internship:
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE)
Current Address: 1708 A-9 Commonwealth Ave, Alexandria,
VA 22301
Phone Number: 703-836-0441
Email: lynn_whiteheart@ita.doc.gov
Lynn is from Germanton, NC. She graduated from UNC with a B.A. in Psychology in 1997 and subsequently left for Poland to teach English under the auspices of WorldTeach (a non-profit affiliated with Harvard). She lived in Grajewo, Poland (in the northeast), for a year, teaching in a public high school and traveling throughout Eastern Europe. Afterwards, Lynn moved to Warsaw for an additional year and a half, where she worked as Administrative Manager for New World Publishing, parent company of the Warsaw, Budapest and Prague Business Journals. While completing her M.A. in Russian and East European Studies at UNC, she focused on socio-economic development and recovery in the Balkans.
Topics:
Nonproliferation, Post-Communist Energy Policy in Czech Republic
Language(s):
Czech, Russian
MA Thesis: Post-Communist Energy Policy Development
in the Czech Republic and Temelin Nuclear Power Plant: Optimal Choice of Pandora's
Box
Employment: U.S Government Accountability Office
Current Address:
441 G Street, NW, Room 2968C, Washington, DC 20548
Phone Number: 202-512-9052
Email: epeerstock@hotmail.com (home),
butler@gao.gov (work)
Since graduating from the program in May 2001, Stockton has been living and working in the Washington, D.C., area for the United States General Accountability Office (GAO). GAO is the investigative arm of Congress and works to ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent efficiently and wisely. At GAO, he has primarily been working on issues relating to the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union. He has had the unique opportunity to visit nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons sites all across Russia to assess U.S. programs to secure and/or destroy these weapons. He once worked on projects looking at U.S. efforts to facilitate the shutdown of Russia's three remaining plutonium, production reactors and assessing the Department of Energy's fiscal year 2005 budget proposal. He recently was Analyst-in-Charge for a GAO team reviewing U.S. efforts to install radiation detecting equipment in other countries. He also particpated in a "sting" attempt to smuggle "dirty bomb" materials into the United States. On a more personal note, Stockton married longtime girlfriend/fiancé Jennifer Snow on October 18, 2003, in South Orange, NJ. They have bought a home in Arlington, VA, where we reside with their cat Mellow.
Topics:
Stalinism
Language(s): Russian
MA Thesis: Revisiting the Getty
Thesis in Light of Russian Archival Evidence
Employment: US Government
Current
Address: Washington, D.C.
Email: jpczyz@earthlink.net
Jason earned a B.A. in History and Modern Languages (Russian and French) from Knox College in 1999, graduating cum laude and college honors. He is a recipient of a Ford Fellowship, Richter Memorial Fellowship, and William Fern Prize. Jason is interested in the purges and repressions of the 1930s in the Soviet Union.
Topics:
Cultural non-profit sector development
Language(s): Polish
MA
Thesis: Between Etatism and Decentralization: Policies Impacting Cultural
Organizations in Present-Day Poland
Employment: Robert Bosch Foundation,
Project Manager
Current Address: Schukkerstr. 57, 10627 Berlin, Germany
Phone Number:49-(0)30-3151-7483
Email: karenhauff@yahoo.com
Karen lives in Berlin and works for the Robert Bosch Foundation as a Project Manager. She and a team of two other people run a wonderful program for young people from 23 countries with a focus on CEE, NIS, SEE-from Siberia to Novi Sad. They foster civic engagement and the understanding of democracies. Yearly they have about 100 fellows who develop their own project ideas in the social, educational or political field, or media project. In seminars all over those countries they teach project management and political education, consultation work, and create networks. A huge network of people who are constantly involved in small projects already exists, and the concept works very well. She encourages students to contact her via email or to visit their German website is www.theodor-heuss-kolleg.de.
Topics:
Russian Telecommunications
Language(s): Russian
MA Thesis:
Modern Telecommunications Infrastructure: A Key to Progressive Development in
Russian
Employment: Foreign Area Officer, US Army
Chad graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in May of 1989. Commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Armor Corps, he attended the Army Officers Basic Course at Fort Knox, KY, and later completed the U.S. Army Ranger School. His first unit assignment was to 2nd Battalion, 67th Armored Regiment in Friedberg, Germany, where he commanded 1st Platoon, C Company to include service during Operation Desert Storm. Selected for Captain in 1993, Chad returned to Fort Knox to complete the Armor Officers Advanced Course and the Cavalry Leaders Course. In 1997, Chad entered the Eurasian Foreign Area Officer Program and studied Russian language at the Defense Language Institute, immediately followed by training at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies. During the 18-month period, he served for four months as the Deputy Team Chief of the Military Liaison Team in Moldova. Chad was promoted to Major on March 1, 2000. He is married to Clarissa McGougan and has a daughter named Ava.
Topics:
East European Security Issues
Language(s): Czech
MA Thesis:
Communism to Democracy: The Evolution of Democratic Civilian Control in the Czech
Republic
Employment: Foreign Area Officer, US Army
Email: Kenneth.Dobbertin@us.army.mil
Ken was born and raised in Wallkill, NY. He graduated from Wallkill Senior High School in 1984 and entered Army (active duty) as a private in September that year. Ken was stationed in Wildflecken, Germany, as a combat engineer from January 1985 to August 1986. After that he attended Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, NY, from January 1987 to December 1988, and also the State University of New York at New Paltz from January1989 until December 1991. Then he was commissioned as Army 2LT in May 1989. Earning a B.A. in Political Science, Ken reentered active duty in Febuary 1991 as Infantry Officer. He has served in positions of Rifle Platoon Leader, Scout Platoon Leader, Battalion Air Operations Officer, Assistant Battalion Operations Officer, and Company Comander. Ken was selected for service in the Army Foreign Area Officer program and completed his graduate degree as part of the training for this program at UNC-CH. Ken and his wife Lorie have three children: Alek, Abbigail and Addison.
Topics:
South Caucasus Security Issues
Language(s): Russian
MA Thesis:
Soviet and Russian Military Involvement in the South Caucasus, 1998-2000:
Implications for the United States Foreign Policy
Employment: Foreign
Area Officer, US Army
Email: joebking@hotmail.com
After graduation, Joe was assigned to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency in Darmstadt, Germany. After that, he spent a year in Iraq working with the Iraq Survey Group. He returned to Washington, D.C., in fall 2004 to begin training for his June 2005 assignment to Vilnius, Lithuania, where he continues today as the Defense Attaché to U.S. Embassy Vilnius.
