Founded in 1966 by France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, today BILC includes 25 member nations. All NATO countries are encouraged to participate in BILC activities and have voting rights at Steering Committee meetings. BILC’s engagements also extend to the Partnership for Peace (PfP), Mediterranean Dialogue (MD), Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) countries, partners across the globe (PatG), and other NATO bodies.
BILC’s Organizational Structure
BILC has three constituents: the Membership, the Secretariat, and the Steering Committee.
BILC Leadership Rotation
Leadership within BILC rotates among NATO member countries. Currently, Croatia is chairing the organization.
Past BILC Presiding Countries:
| UK | 1966-1981 |
| GERMANY | 1982-1996 |
| USA | 1997-2008 |
| CANADA | 2008-2014 |
| USA | 2014-2016 |
| BULGARIA | 2016-2019 |
| SLOVENIA | 2019-2022 |
BILC SECRETARIAT
Among its numerous responsibilities, the Secretariat organizes and conducts cooperative visits to nations requesting assistance with their training and testing programmes; assists host nations with the organizing of the main BILC events (the annual Conference, Professional Development Seminar, the NATO STANAG 6001 Testing Workshop); organizes and delivers specialized testing and training-related seminars and workshops, etc. The Secretariat keeps NATO authorities informed of the BILC activities and projects undertaken in support of its mandate.
Chair
Irena Prpic Djuric
Irena Prpic Djuric is the director of the Katarina Zrinska Foreign Language Center at the Dr. Franjo Tudman Defense Academy. She has been working there since 1996. She is an English teacher graduating from the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. She also holds a M.Sc. degree in American Studies. She started working in the Center as a teacher. In 2001 she was appointed head of the Teaching Department. She has been the head of the Center since 2014. Besides teaching and translating/interpreting, she was a member of the STANAG 6001 examination board for a couple of years.
E-mail: irena_ines@yahoo.com
Secretaries
Suzana Horvat
Suzana Horvat works at the Katarina Zrinska Foreign Language Center at the Dr. Franjo Tudman Defense Academy. She has been working in the Croatian Testing Team since 2006 and has been responsible for development, administration and evaluation of tests. Prior to this position, she worked as a teacher of English in public and foreign language schools. She has been a member of the Shared Item Bank Working Group since 2019, working on the development of anchor items for listening and reading skills. She graduated from the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Borjana Soldo
Borjana Soldo has been working at the Katarina Zrinska Foreign Language Center at the Dr. Franjo Tudman Defense Academy, Osijek Department, since 2004. She graduated from the University of Osijek, Croatia, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, with a degree in English and German language and literature. As an experienced language teacher her job includes course work at different levels of English/German as well as developing learning/teaching/testing material on everyday basis. She co-facilitated BILC Language Standards and Assessment Seminar (LSAS) in 2018.
Senior Advisor
Dr. Ray Clifford
Ray Clifford served as the Chair of the NATO Bureau for International Language Coordination from 1997 to 2008, and he continues to serve as the organization’s Senior Advisor. He was Dean, Provost, and then Chancellor of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Monterey, California from 1981 through 2004; and he is currently Director of the Center for Language Studies and Associate Dean in the College of Humanities at Brigham Young University. He has served as president of several professional organizations including the American Council on Teaching Foreign Languages, the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations, and the Joint National Committee for Languages.
His awards include the FIPLV International Award, (presented by the Fédération Internationale des Professeurs de Langues Vivantes, an official partner NGO with UNESCO), a National Performance Review Award (from the Vice President of the United States for reinventing government), the Medallion for Meritorious Service (from the U.S. Director of Central Intelligence for service outside of the intelligence community), the Language Flagship Leadership Award (from the U.S. Department of Defense), the Award for Distinguished Service to the Profession (from the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages), and a Creative Works Award (from Brigham Young University).
He received a PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1977 and a Doctor Honoris Causa from Middlebury College in 2003. He has published extensively on foreign language teaching and testing, and among his publications is the research that empirically validated the STANAG 6001 reading and listening proficiency scales.
Associate secretaries
Dr. Edelmira Nickels
Dr. Edelmira Nickels is the Director of the Partner Language Training Center, Europe (PLTCE) at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies. Leading a team of highly Dr. Edelmira Nickels is the Director of the Partner Language Training Center, Europe (PLTCE) at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies. She leads a committed team that provides advanced language training for U.S. linguists and conducts NATO-approved graduate-level seminars for language testers and educators from NATO and partner nations. Dr. Nickels supports NATO language interoperability efforts and serves as the Requirements Authority Representative for Language Standards within NATO’s Education, Training, Exercises, and Evaluation (ETEE) Discipline. She is also an Associate Secretary for BILC. Previously, she was the Chair of the Strategic Languages Department at PLTCE, overseeing training in critical languages and managing workshops on interpreting techniques. Before joining PLTCE, Dr. Nickels was the Chief of English Language Testing at DLIELC managing the development and security of DoD language assessments. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Applied Linguistics from Indiana University and a B.A. in Secondary Education TESS from the University of Puerto Rico.
Email: BILC@marshallcenter.org
Peggy Garza
Peggy Garza is the Head of the English Language Programs Department in the Partner Language Training Center Europe (PLTCE) at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. She is responsible for managing five NATO-approved courses and various English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses for security professionals. She has led different BILC language training and testing standardization efforts and delivers expert guidance to NATO and partner nations on improving their language training and testing capacities. She has served as either the BILC Secretary or an Associate BILC Secretary since 1997. She has an M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language from the State University of New York at Albany and an MBA from the University of Texas in San Antonio.
E-mail: BILC@marshallcenter.org
Julie Dubeau, M.A.
Chief Standards, Foreign Language Programs
Canadian Defence Academy
Julie J. Dubeau has been involved in foreign language education, training and testing throughout her career: working as a trilingual court interpreter, French teacher, test specialist, tester and tester trainer. She has been working for the Department of National Defence of Canada since 1990.
She currently works as of Chief of Standards, Foreign Languages, for the Canadian Defence Academy managing the national foreign language standards’ section. She holds an Honours B.A. in Foreign Languages (Spanish) and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics both from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Ms. Dubeau attended her first BILC in 1994 and has been collaborating with BILC for many years on several interoperability-related initiatives such as updating the NATO STANAG 6001, developing the ‘plus’ levels, elaborating the Benchmark Advisory Test (BAT) and conducting research on language testing and language needs analyses. On behalf of Canada and NATO, she assists requesting nations in setting up or modernizing their language training and testing programmes. In 2008, Julie was appointed BILC Secretary and Chair in 2013. Since 2014, Julie serves BILC as an associate secretary.
E-mail: Julie.Dubeau@forces.gc.ca
Jana Vasilj-Begovic, M.A.
Foreign Language Standards Officer
Canadian Defence Academy
Jana Vasilj-Begovic holds an M.A. degree in Philology from the University of Belgrade, B. A. degrees in English and German literature and languages from the University of Sarajevo, as well as a B.Ed. degree in Dramatic Arts and English from Queen’s University, Canada. She has worked for the Department of National Defence of Canada since 1993 and has occupied various positions including those of a Foreign Language Test Specialist, Curriculum Development Manager, and Foreign Language Standards Officer (responsible for testing and curriculum development in foreign languages). She has many years of teaching experience, and is also a certified translator of the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Ontario. Under the auspices of BILC, Ms. Vasilj-Begovic has participated in numerous projects, such as the delivery of the Language Testing Seminar, design and delivery of the Advanced Language Testing Seminar, development of the Benchmark Advisory Test and the Prototype Level-4 Reading Test, amplification of STANAG 6001 language descriptors, assistance visits to nations with the goal of helping them set up their testing programmes, etc.
E-mail: Jana.Vasilj-Begovic@forces.gc.ca