Lia Plakans is the Department Executive Officer of Teaching and Learning as well as a Professor of Multilingual Education. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in language education, assessment, and second language reading. She conducts research and publishes in these areas with a focus on the integration of reading and writing in assessments; decision-making and testing; and processes in second language reading and writing. She has served as Associate Editor for Language Assessment Quarterly and as co-editor of the Brief Reports section of TESOL Quarterly. She is an editorial board member of Journal of Second Language Writing, Language Testing, and Assessing Writing. She has co-directed multiple grants ($2-2.5 million each) funded by the Office of English Language Acquisition in the U.S. Department of Education for professional development of pre-service and in-service teachers to support English Learners. She teaches in the K-12 ESL Endorsement program. Her research and teaching are situated in the U.S. and internationally, with time as a Fulbright scholar in Latvia, and collaborations with scholars in Taiwan, China, Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Egypt, Norway, and the UK. As the DEO for the Department of Teaching and Learning, she works with faculty across disciplines in areas of educator preparation including curriculum review and revision, field experiences and mentoring, assessments of teacher candidates, professional development, equity-centered education, pipeline programming, and accreditation reviews.