Dr. Mika C. Leck is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Multicultural Education in the School of Teacher Preparation, Administration, and Leadership at New Mexico State University. She earned her BA in International Business & Economics at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan; her Master of Science in Education with a focus on Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) at Temple University, Tokyo campus; her second MA in Asian Studies at Sejong University in Seoul, South Korea, and completed her Ph.D. in Curriculum & Instruction at New Mexico State University. Her research interest includes promoting the inclusion of diverse experiences in education through personal storytelling, as her doctoral dissertation was an autoethnography of her lived experiences navigating the self in various social contexts as a transnational Japanese and American woman. She believes that looking at the self furthers the dialogue of social and cultural issues. Dr. Leck encourages personal storytelling in research and classrooms, for it acts as a platform for silenced, ignored, minoritized, oppressed, invisible, and erased voices and experiences to be accessed and heard.
