Luciana de Oliveira, Ph.D., associate dean for academic affairs and graduate studies in Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Education, has been recognized by the American Educational Research Association for her contributions to second language research, teaching and professional service.

The AERA’s Second Language Research Special Interest Group is honoring de Oliveira, who is also a professor in the School of Education’s Department of Teaching and Learning, with its Leadership Through Research Award, which recognizes second language specialists who are engaged in innovative research and work to support other scholars in the field. She will receive the award in April at the 2025 AERA annual meeting in Denver.

For two decades, de Oliveira’s work in TESOL – Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages – has helped advance the field and prepare a new generation of scholars.

“My nomination was led by a former Ph.D. student who gathered statements from some of my current and former mentees, advisees and collaborators. It means a lot to me that so many of them contributed to my nomination – as much as they have contributed to who I am as a researcher today,” de Oliveira said.

Throughout her career, de Oliveira’s research has focused on the teaching and learning of multilingual learners and on the preparation of all teachers to work with and advocate for that student population. Her work draws upon systemic functional linguistics to investigate content and language integration issues in mainstream content area classrooms.

In 2024, de Oliveira was among recipients of VCU’s National/International Recognition Award, which recognizes VCU faculty on a broad scale for accomplishments and performance at the top of their academic units, as well as the School of Education’s Distinguished Scholarship Award.