Nyusya Milman-Miller, an associate professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures/Russian, received the Outstanding Contribution to the Profession Award for 2016 from the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL). The award is one of five presented annually by the association for teaching, service, and scholarship.  Milman-Miller was recognized for her contributions as a Russian language specialist and author of Russian textbooks, a teacher of Russian, and a director of Russian programs in the Slavic field for more than 40 years.  She was honored for developing the Russian program at Virginia Tech into one of the strongest programs in the country by increasing the number of minors, administering federal grants for the study of Russian and other critical languages, and developing study abroad programs in Russian and Latvia. Milman-Miller received the award at the AATSEEL conference, which was held February 2–5 in San Francisco.