Dr. Motoko Akiba is a Professor of Educational Policy at Florida State University. She received her B.A. from the University of Tsukuba, Japan, and a dual-title Ph.D. in “Educational Theory & Policy” and “Comparative & International Education” from Pennsylvania State University-University Park. Dr. Akiba’s areas of research expertise are teacher policy and reform, teacher professional development, and comparative education policy. Her publications include an article, “Adapting an international innovation in teacher professional development: State and district approaches to lesson study in Florida” in Journal of Teacher Education (2015) and books, “Teacher reforms around the world: Implementations and outcomes (Emerald Publishing, 2013) and “Improving teacher quality: The U.S. teaching force in global context (Teachers College Press, 2009). She is currently serving as an associate editor of Educational Researcher and leading a NSF DRK-12 project entitled, Identifying an effective and scalable model of lesson study.