Laurel Kamada is a retired professor (Tohoku U, Japan) with a PhD (Applied Linguistics, Lancaster U, England). The International Gender & Language Association co-awarded her book Hybrid Identities & Adolescent Girls: Being ‘Half’ in Japan (Multilingual Matters, 2010) the best book on gender & language, 2010-11. Her other book, titled Transformed in a Stroke: A Memoir of Brain Hemorrhage and Recovery in the United States and Japan, was recently published (Toplight Books—an imprint of McFarland Publishing, 2021). Born and raised in Seattle, US, she has since been residing in Japan. She is an under-represented author due to a physical disability. She is otherwise in excellent health.

Julia Kimura earned her Ph.D. in Education through Temple University, where she researched a community of practice comprising female foreign language teachers. She is a lecturer at Mukogawa Women’s University, where she teaches undergrads and graduate students in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Her research interests include communities of practice, gender, and pedagogy, specifically extensive reading. Recent publications include “Enthusiastic volunteers. Reluctant feminists.” GALE Journal (2023) and “Publish or perish? Publish and flourish!” OnCUE Journal (In press). Dr. Kimura is a proud JALT member and is thoroughly enjoying her term on the Board of Directors as Director of Membership.

Dr. Wendy M. Gough is an associate professor in the Faculty of Foreign Studies at Bunkyo Gakuin University in Tokyo. She has researched academic writing curriculum and developing communities of learners in writing classes as well as using community outreach projects in Japan for developing communicative competence in English and intercultural skills. Dr. Gough researched PT university teacher wellbeing and support in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. Since that time she has developed a support system and promoted community building among the teachers she works with.

Takaaki Hiratsuka is a Professor at Ryukoku University in Kyoto, Japan, where he supervises master’s and PhD students, both Japanese and non-Japanese, in related fields of language teacher education and narrative inquiry. He received his PhD in language teaching and learning from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is also the Chairperson of JALT 2023 Conference. His recent book publications include Narrative Inquiry into language Teacher Identity: ALTs in the JET Program (2022, Routledge) and Team Teachers in Japan: Beliefs, Identities, and Emotions (2023, Routledge).   

Jennie Roloff Rothman is a Senior Coordinator for Professional & Teacher Development in the English Language Institute at Kanda University of International Studies. She oversees and supports the growth and development of approximately sixty early to mid-career EFL lecturers as well as serving on her university's faculty development committee. Her research interests include critical thinking and global issues in the EFL classroom, teacher development, reflective practice, and critical friendships. She received her Masters in TESOL from Teachers College Columbia University and has been teaching in Japan since 2004.

Adrianne Verla Uchida has taught English in Japan since 2004 at the secondary and tertiary level. She is currently an assistant professor at Nihon University College of International Relations. Her academic interests include reflective practice, teacher identity, and critical friendships. 

Kie Yamamoto is Assistant Professor in the department of English Communication at Wayo Women’s University, Chiba. She has led multiple self-directed learning projects, including the establishment of Global Lounge within the institution. She is also a doctoral candidate at University of Bath, U.K. Her research interests lie in learner agency, student engagement, teletandem learning, and learner identity.

Amanda Yoshida has been teaching English in Japan since 2002. After teaching at the secondary level for several years, she obtained her MA TESOL degree from Anaheim University in 2013 and began teaching at the tertiary level. She currently teaches Media English and Academic Writing at Kanda University of International Studies in Chiba. She is also the course coordinator for Media English and a member of the Professional Development Committee. She has run several reflective practice sessions on topics, such as teacher well-being and burnout. She has published papers and book chapters about teacher-reflective practices and action research. Her reflective practice mostly centers on teacher journaling in some form or other, and she is currently involved in a critical friendship project in which she and a colleague maintain form-focus journals and meet once a week to advise each other on their struggles using the reflective dialogue framework put forth by Dr. Jo Mynard and Dr. Satoko Kato. In her free time, she enjoys learning to sew, walking her dog, and visiting area parks.