Former English teacher at Chicago Public Schools and the Hyogo Board of Education in Japan, Ruby Regina Benigno comes to NEIU with a diverse background in domestic and international education. She started her career in higher education as the Tutoring Coordinator for the TRiO Program at Loyola University Chicago where she got her Master’s of Education in Cultural and Educational Policy Studies. In her spare time, she volunteers with nonprofit organizations to address educational inequality in the city of Chicago and with international exchange programs to bridge relationships between Japan and Chicago. As a graduate student, she explored the ways in which cultural exchange programs with an English immersion component recruit assistant language teachers and researched the provision of Muslim education in the Philippines. She is excited to begin her journey in the field of international higher education at Northeastern Illinois University in the Office of International Programs. She hopes to use her experience, knowledge, and resources to better serve the international community at NEIU.