Tamara Schmeisser holds a BS degree in Finance and Banking from Buena Vista University and a BA in World Languages and Cultures with a minor in Russian from Iowa State University. She is currently an MA student in TESL/Applied Linguistics. She has taught community-based ESL courses in Des Moines to adult refugees from various regions in the world and currently teaches English 101C. Her interests include literacy issues, L2 writing development, sociolinguistics, second language acquisition, and pedagogy.