Nataliya Ushakova

Nataliya Ushakova

Nataliya Ushakova received her B.A. and M.A. in Russian Language and Literature from Moscow State University in Russia. During her studies and for seven years thereafter, Ms. Ushakova worked as a researcher at the State Museum of Mayakovski in Moscow, Russia. When she came to the United States, Ms. Ushakova received her M.S. in Library and Information Science from the Pratt Institute in New York.

In 2004, Nataliya Ushakova began teaching the Russian Language at the Staten Island Technical Specialized High School (SITHS) in New York. This unique high school, where Russian is the only foreign language taught, was ranked #7 in New York State and #63 on the U.S. News & World Report’s list of the Best High Schools in the USA in 2022. Ms. Ushakova worked at the New York Public Library from 1999 to 2004 with the position of Branch Librarian (2002-2004). Ms. Ushakova teaches courses at the college level, in conjunction with SUNY at Albany. She has also coordinated the SITHS exchange program with the Moscow School since 2005.  

In 2006, Ms. Ushakova received a Fulbright Scholarship for the Summer Russian Language Teachers Program at Moscow State University, and in 2008, she received a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Fellowship for the Intensive Summer Russian Language Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia. Since 2010, she has worked as the Lead Instructor for the National Security Agency’s STARTALK Summer Teachers Professional Development Program. In 2014, she was certified as an ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) Tester of Russian. Ms. Ushakova is a recipient of the A.S. Pushkin Medal of the International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature.