She received her doctoral degree in Curriculum and Instruction: Second Languages and Cultures at the University of Minnesota in 2005. Dr. Dahlman has lived roughly half of her life in Finland, where she was born and raised, and the other half in the United States, where she immigrated as a young adult. She has three Master’s degrees in three foreign languages, German, Swedish and ESL. Finnish is her native language. In addition to living in Finland and the United States, she has lived in Germany and Sweden, where she studied the languages and cultures of those countries. Dr. Dahlman’s teaching and research interests focus on multicultural education, inter-cultural communication and excellence in teaching and learning.