Who We Are
GLN is an almost entirely volunteer-run not-for-profit organization! We have only two people full-time paid staff, a large body of organizational volunteers (who help out with operations) and teacher volunteers (who teach our language classes). Please read the bios of our volunteer Executive Board.
Andrew Brown, Founder and Chairman
Andrew was born and raised in Colorado. His first adventure abroad came at age 17 when he studied in France for a year. This sparked a love for connecting with foreign cultures and languages, which has led Andrew to travel, study, and work in 30 countries since then. Andrew has made a point to learn a language for almost every country he has visited, and since 2001 has taught nearly 10 of those languages.
Andrew holds a B.A. in International Affairs and an M.P.A. in Non-Profit Management and International Development Management from The George Washington University, where he received the International Programs Fellowship and served on the International Programs Advisory Council.
After 5 years of working in various fields, Andrew saw the need for supporting foreign language education and in September 2005 he founded what would become The Global Language Network. He started out as the only teacher and later trained hundreds of teachers. In 2008 he incorporated GLN as an official 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization and has been helping shape its vision and strategy.
Andrew is currently pursuing full-time Talmudic studies in Jerusalem, Israel while consulting GLN part-time. Andrew looks forward to joining the GLN team full-time again after completing his studies.
Full-time Staff:
Svetozar (Zarko) Palankov, President
Zarko was born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria, where he graduated from the American College of Sofia (a private American high school located in the outskirts of Sofia). In 2001, he was accepted on a full scholarship at Ohio Wesleyan University and graduated in 2005 with a B.A. degree in English and French. In 2008, he completed his M.A. in European and Eurasian Studies from The George Washington University.
Zarko became involved with GLN in September 2006 when GLN was still a student organization on the campus of The George Washington University. When GLN was officially incorporated as a not-for-profit organization in August 2008, Zarko became a full-time employee and subsequently became the President in March 2010.
Karyn Dubravetz, Executive Coordinator
Karyn Dubravetz’s love of foreign languages began in High School when she started studying Russian. After High School, she attended Kent State University (Ohio) where she eventually followed her heart, changed her major to Russian, and immediately signed up for a semester abroad in Volgograd, Russia.
Craving more foreign language, Karyn spent a summer at the Middlebury College Language Program. Afterwards, she and her husband, Daniel, moved to Washington DC to take advantage of the multi-culti environment. Her first involvement with GLN was in 2007 as a student. In addition to continuing her Russian studies, she’s taken Kazakh and Slovak. In her spare time, she organizes the DC Russian Language Meetup Group.
Karyn joined GLN as the Executive Coordinator in May, 2011.