ACTFL’s 2022 Language Teacher of the Year, Heather Sweetser, received her M.A. in Arabic at The Ohio State University in 2012. Originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, she joined the Army in 1998 and learned Arabic at the Defense Language Institute, becoming an Arabic interpreter. Experiences with languages in the U.S. Government inspired her to become a language instructor focusing on intercultural competence as a core part of language fluency. Currently, Heather teaches beginning through advanced Arabic at The University of New Mexico, and is one of the co-creators of the wecanlearnarabic.com website.