Lisa Dorner

A decorate border with a talavera pottery pattern. Pattern is colorful with green, red, yellow, and white.
Image of Director of Cambio Center, faculty fellow, and Board member, Lisa Dorner PhD.

Lisa Dorner, Ph.D.
Director of Cambio Center

Personal Website

Lisa M. Dorner, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis (ELPA) at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Her work for the Cambio Center started in 2010 when she became a Cambio Fellow after discovering her favorite academic home, the annual Cambio de Colores-Change of Colors conference. Her research centers on language policy and planning, educational policy implementation, and immigrant childhoods, especially children’s language brokering and families’ integration in “new” spaces. As co-founder of the Missouri Dual Language Network, Lisa enjoys connecting people and resources for dual language learning, bilingual education policy development, and understanding the immigrant experience; one example of this is her co-creation of the Missouri Dual Language Network (www.modlan.org). She became Director of the Cambio Center in 2022.

Many of Lisa’s research projects have been completed in collaboration with the Cambio Center and our network. From 2017-2022, Lisa co-led the U.S. Department of Education funded project, Strengthening Equity and Effectiveness for Teachers of English Learners, working with four school districts across Missouri. In 2022, she led a project funded by the Spencer Foundation titled Building Raciolinguistic Justice in Midwestern Dual Language Programs through Research-Practice Partnerships, and from 2023-2024, she and Cambio Fellow Dr. Emily Crawford-Rossi have worked closely with Missouri Office of Refugee Administration.

Lisa received her PhD and MA in Human Development and Social Policy from Northwestern University and was a Fulbright Specialist to Colombia in 2018.