Alina Slapac is an Associate Professor of action research, curriculum and instruction at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL). Her research interests include teacher preparation and development with focus on global and multicultural education, (participatory) action research, culturally and linguistically responsive teaching (culture as strength), collaborative online international learning, and transformative pedagogy. She has been collaborating with educators from China, Norway, Romania, Spain, South Africa, South Korea and USA on research and teaching, including Collaborative International Learning (COIL) partnerships. Dr. Slapac has been an UMSL Global Fellow and an UMSL Inquiry Circles Fellow on global competency. Among numerous journal articles and book chapters, she also co-edited two books: Handbook of Research on the Global Empowerment of Educators and Student Learning through Action Research (Slapac, Balcerzak & O’Brien, 2021) and Beyond Language Learning Instruction: Transformative Supports for Emergent Bilinguals and Educators (Slapac & Coppersmith, 2019) (IGI Global). She currently serves as the Vice-Chair for Internationalization of Teacher Education TAG (Topic Action Group) through the American Association for Colleges of Teacher Education (ACCTE).