Makiko Fukuda is a professor of instruction and the coordinator of the Japanese program at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). She was born and raised in Hokuto City in Hokkaido Prefecture, the northern part of Japan. As a child, she learned the abacus and calligraphy alongside her two older brothers. She also acquired the skills to play the electric organ and a bass recorder. During high school, she joined the handball team. 

Dr. Fukuda is a first-generation college graduate. While pursuing her college education in Japan, she studied at Manchester College in Indiana for a year. After completing her undergraduate degree, she participated in a language exchange program called EEP (currently known as ALEX) before enrolling at Purdue University in 2003. In 2009, she earned her Ph.D. from Purdue University, specializing in Japanese Pedagogy and Applied Linguistics. 

She instructs Japanese language courses at all levels and offers Japanese culture courses, including Japanese films and Anime. In her culture courses, students develop their intercultural competency, critical thinking, and global leadership skills. She collaborates with Korean and Chinese professors to co-teach three online courses: East Asian Colloquium, East Asian Pop Culture, and East Asian Films. Additionally, she serves as a Japanese language instructor at the San Antonio Language Academy. Detailed course descriptions can be found in the "Courses Taught at UTSA" section in the Menu bar. 

Dr. Fukuda's research interests encompass the oral language and literacy development of adult second language learners. She also conducts research on methods to enhance students' intercultural competency in the context of study abroad programs and recently published a research paper titled "Summer Study Abroad in Japan: Maximizing Intercultural Competency Development through Self-Guided Cultural Exploration and Reflection Tasks." Please access her publications via the "Publications" section in the Menu bar. 

In addition to her teaching role at UTSA, she served as the president of the Japanese Teachers Association in Texas in 2018 and the Japan America Society of San Antonio in 2014. Her contributions to education were recognized with the 2019 Texas Foreign Language Association Teacher of the Year Award and the 2023 American Association of Teachers of Japanese Outstanding Teacher Award.