Hiromi Takayama received her Ph.D. in Foreign Language and ESL Education from the University of Iowa. For the last thirteen years, Hiromi, a native speaker of Japanese, has taught Japanese as a foreign language, ESL, and EFL at four diverse colleges. She also taught a teacher education course, based on her dissertation, which focused on language teacher efficacy and identity development by comparing non-native and native language teachers. Her research interests include grammar pedagogy, teacher education, teachers’ professional development, and cultural influences on language teaching and learning. Her goal of teaching is to promote language learners’ intercultural competency and critical thinking skills.