DAHLONEGA - Lee Durham has been crisscrossing the country since January to coordinate between three universities, including North Georgia College & State University, in a pilot Chinese flagship program for cadets. Durham is the first national ROTC flagship liaison, a federally funded position created as part of a Department of Defense initiative stressing language and culture expertise for U.S. military officers.
"The National Security Education Program's (NSEP) Language Flagship program was started in 1991 to get more language and culture capability into federal service, an area that was found to be lacking about the time of Desert Storm," said Durham, who spent 30 years in the U.S. Army and the Georgia National Guard. "Last year, the decision was made to move flagship from being merely a civilian government focus to targeting ROTC cadets -- a group of young, high-quality and well-educated students who are guaranteed at least six years of service. And the vast majority of them tend to stay in government service even if they don't remain in the military."
In fall 2011, North Georgia, Arizona State University and Georgia Institute of Technology were the first three schools to be designated pilot ROTC flagship universities and were awarded NSEP grants to instruct cadets in Chinese. The models developed by the three universities will be used to develop similar programs across the country.
The mission of NSEP's Language Flagship program, to help students gain high-level proficiency in strategic foreign languages and culture, meshes well with North Georgia's strategic vision -- educating students for life and leadership in a global community. Strategic languages identified by NSEP are Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Urdu, Korean, Persian, Russian, and Swahili, four of which are taught at North Georgia.
Dr. Chris Jespersen, dean of the School of Arts and Letters, said Durham arrived ready for the work ahead.
"Lee's work is invaluable in two areas: first, he's going to communicate with ROTC students about the program and the great opportunity a flagship program presents to those who are dedicated and committed to achieving an exceptionally high level of proficiency in Chinese language; and second, Lee is in charge of coordinating with the other flagship institutions, both ROTC and civilian, to ensure that North Georgia's program is well-known and in step with what the others are doing," Jespersen said.
Durham is based at North Georgia, but he'll be coordinating between the three armed services and all three schools. Each university faces its own challenges in developing ROTC flagship programs in Chinese.
"Every school has positives, but all three also have challenges they have to overcome," Durham said. "The challenge for North Georgia is learning how to establish a flagship. The goal is to have students not only taking language courses, but also taking their core classes in a foreign language. That's a big requirement for a university, especially one the size of North Georgia, to have Chinese professors teaching history, math and science."
Georgia Tech faces a similar challenge as a new flagship school, but also has to find a way for engineering and science students who already have a heavy course load to succeed in difficult languages like Chinese and Arabic, Durham said. Though Arizona State has had a Chinese flagship program since 2007, the challenge lies in expanding that program to cadets while addressing the particular needs of military learners.
Though his role currently doesn't include teaching or training duties, Durham has plenty of experience in both. During his military career, Durham led several schools, including the Antigua Barbuda Commando School in the West Indies, the Battle Command Training Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and the Warrior Training Center at Fort Benning, Ga. While deployed to Afghanistan, Durham commanded 4,800-person task force responsible for more than 40 Afghan Army training teams and 51 police training teams.
Durham also was a Special Forces officer and commanded the Georgia National Guard's 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team from 2007-10.
Durham has three advanced degrees in addition to his bachelor's degree -- a law degree, a master's degree in international relations and a master's in national security strategy. Durham has served as an assistant county attorney in Kansas and was in private legal practice.
Durham and wife Daina have a son, Carson, a rising sophomore at North Georgia, and a daughter, Alexis.
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July 5th, 2025
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