I am an applied linguist, an educator, and an administrator with expertise in Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Through research, teaching, and educational programming, I contribute to global learning and international education across the US.I have a Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition from the University of Wisconsin- Madison, with a combined minor in the pedagogy of Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTLs). I am also an alumnus of the Department of African Languages and Literature (now department of African Cultural Studies), UW-Madison, where I got an M.A. degree in African Languages and Literature. My PhD. research explored the social, cultural, and linguistic implications of language study abroad in a multilingual West African setting. I draw insights mostly from Critical Applied Linguistics (CALx) to explore real-world issues that interconnect with language learning. I am dedicated to the promotion of innovative programming for the pedagogy of African languages and the Less Commonly Taught Languages in general.