Neal Alexander Monroe is a doctoral student in ESL Education at the UTK David T. Bailey Graduate School of Education. He joined this renowned program to expand his international teaching career into educational research with the aim of guiding school community stakeholders to better understand and support English and additional language learners. His research interests include bilingualism and biliteracy studies, translanguaging, and educational equity for diverse and multilingual communities. Prior to his doctoral work, Neal served for ten years as an elementary and high school international educator in Mexico City, Mexico, including teaching service at a top-ranked international school. After completing the program, he aspires to further research initiatives in higher education, particularly in international settings.