Jan Lacina is a UKLA International Ambassador for the United States. She has worked in a range of settings including as a 2nd grade public school teacher in Texas, a 1st-6th grade pull-out ESL teacher in Texas, and as an ESL teacher in an intensive English program for college students in Kansas. For the past twenty years, she has served as a teacher educator in both public and private universities. Currently, Jan is Professor and Interim Dean in the College of Education at Texas Christian University (TCU). Jan contributes regularly to the UKLA Conference, and she serves on the Editorial Board for the UKLA’s journal, Literacy. Her teaching and research experiences are in the areas of literacy instruction for English language learners and in writing instruction. Jan has authored more than 100 publications, including four books. Routledge (2020) published her most recent edited book, Preparing Globally Minded Literacy Teachers: Knowledge, Practices, and Case Studies. She served as Associate Editor and then Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Research in Childhood Education (JRCE). She now serves as Co-Editor of the International Literacy Association’s journal The Reading Teacher from June 2015-2021.