In 2005, Mr. Brownlee attended the Defense Language Institute’s Arabic basic course. He helped reinstate an Iraqi dialect transition course which had not existed since the first Gulf War, attended this course and ensured its continuity. After graduating from the Defense Language Institute, Sean utilized autonomous learning strategies to teach himself Persian-Dari before deploying to Afghanistan where he was able to work with host nation forces without the use of an interpreter. He later ran MARSOC’s pilot initial acquisition language program for Dari, Pashto, Urdu, Indonesian and French.

After returning from Afghanistan, he attended the Defense Language Institute’s Command Language Program Manager Course and became the Staff Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge of the Inaugural Language Course at the Marine Special Operations School. Mr. Brownlee ran additional intermediate courses in languages deemed critical to the Marine Corps. He also contracted and managed isolation-immersion exercises and live environment training in the U.S. and internationally.

Mr. Brownlee maintains close ties to the Defense Language Institute and the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey.