I am Daniel Henry Smith from Liberia, West Africa. I am the founding executive director of the Teaching and Learning Center at the University of Liberia. I am also a PhD candidate in Education at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education. As a teenager, I experienced Liberia's civil war and escaped on foot to Guinea where I was educated in a school organized by the International Rescue Committee (IRC). I went on to complete my studies at the University of Liberia where I was the student president. My academic research focuses on the extent to which international intervention in educational development in Liberia fosters or hinders innovation among Liberian educators and has implications for the effective collaboration between international organizations and local stakeholders in educational development.