WIDA - Key Persons
Ahyoung Alicia Kim is a researcher at WIDA where she conducts validation research of ACCESS for ELLs 2.0 and other WIDA language assessments. Her research interests include language assessment, child bilingualism, second language literacy development, and computer-assisted language learning.
Prior to joining WIDA, Alicia was a post-doctoral fellow with a focus on child bilingualism at Cornell University. She has also led research on large-scale English proficiency exams at Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea. Over the years, she has taught TESOL and ESL courses in the U.S. and abroad.
Alicia holds an Ed.D. in Applied Linguistics and an Ed.M. in TESOL from Teachers College, Columbia University. In her free time, she enjoys practicing/instructing yoga and exploring nature.
Job Titles:
- Special Advisor, Director
Job Titles:
- Director of Assessment Administration
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Deputy Director
Amber Wilke Fournier serves as the Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer at WIDA. She has held multiple senior leadership roles at both non-profit and for-profit education companies. In addition, Amber spent several years as a consultant focused on strategic planning and business development for clients in the technology, global philanthropy and education sectors.
Amber earned her MA in History at the University of Chicago and a BA in History and English from Gonzaga University.
Amber drives WIDA's day-to-day operations based on more than 20 years' experience in leadership roles focused on operational excellence, strategic planning, change management and business development.
Job Titles:
- Assessment Project Manager
I'm Andree Miller, and I am thrilled to join WIDA as a Project Manager. With a knack for juggling projects and a passion for education, I bring over 15 years of experience to the team. In my previous roles, I successfully managed Student Information Systems and Funding projects (from ideation to implementation) in the K-12 industry, setting the stage for managing high-priority projects here at WIDA. I'm excited to contribute to the impactful work of providing educators worldwide with top-notch language standards and assessments.
Andree holds a BS in Computer Science from City College of New York and a Masters in Education Administration and Policy Studies from Hofstra University.
Andree recently transplanted to the state of Georgia and enjoys learning about her new locale while spending time with friends and family.
Job Titles:
- ELPA Assessment Coordinator
Andy Reichert manages data for the WIDA Research Team. He also presents data to state educational agencies via the WIDA Data Dashboard. Before joining WIDA, he assisted school districts with analyzing NCLB and other standardized assessment data. Andy has a degree in Economics from the University of Wisconsin.
Anna Rhoad-Drogalis is an Inclusion Researcher at WIDA. Anna's work has been focused on improving educational opportunities for students through mixed methods and quantitative education research that can be applied to inform policy and support evidence-based decision making. She provides research support to the Advancing Alternate English Language Learning Assessment (Advancing ALTELLA) project that focuses on English Learners with the most significant cognitive disabilities. Anna's current research focuses on understanding how educators make decisions regarding accessibility, accommodations, and alternate assessments.
Job Titles:
- Assessment Specialist, Special Populations
Job Titles:
- EL Assessment Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Administrative Staff Officer
Job Titles:
- Director of ELD, at 573 - 751 - 3926 or
Cathlin Foy is the research administrator at WIDA, which includes organizing administrative, fiscal and communication procedures for research, investigating federal, state, and private funding sources for research initiatives. Cathliln has over 20 years of experience managing large federal grants and is currently managing the Advancing Alternate English Language Learning Assessment (Advancing ALTELLA) project.
She also serves as the consortium liaison for Internal Review Board (IRB) submissions regarding human subjects research. Cathlin holds a BA in English, History, and Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin and a Masters Certificate in Project Management from the Wisconsin School of Business.
Job Titles:
- Assessment Program Consultant
Job Titles:
- Director of Information Technology
Daniel Machmeier is the Director of Information Technology for WIDA. Dan and his team are responsible for improving, expanding and supporting operational systems, Assessment development and delivery platforms, Professional Learning portals and information management and security. Dan brings 30 years of Information Technology experience in the areas of Data Administration, Packaged Applications Solutions delivery, Custom software development, Technology Infrastructure and Information security. Through his career, Dan has leveraged his technology experience in various industries including Educational Publishing, Genomic Research, Telecommunications Manufacturing, Direct to Consumer Sales, Food Service distribution, and Software as a Service Solutions. He has a B.S in MIS from DeVry Institute of Technology.
For more than 30 years in a variety of industries, organizational cultures, and technology roles, Dan has been adding value to organizations by delivering both internal and external facing information technology solutions.
David MacGregor, PhD., is an Assessment Researcher for the WIDA Consortium. Dr. MacGregor received his PhD. in Applied Linguistics from Georgetown University. He has an MAT in TESOL and Spanish from the School for International Training and a BA in Linguistics from the University of Chicago. Prior to coming to WIDA, Dr. MacGregor worked on various language assessment projects at the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL). Much of his work at CAL was focused on WIDA-related projects. Dr. MacGregor also has over a decade of experience teaching ESOL in the US, Turkey and Spain, and has also taught Spanish in the US.
Dr. MacGregor is interested in issues related to test validity, standard setting, computer adaptive testing, and cognitive linguistics.
Job Titles:
- Continuous Improvement Manager
Delis Cuéllar, Ph.D., is a research associate in the Research Policy and Evaluation Department. She joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2015, and conducts research on policies, practices and ideologies affecting childhood bilingualism. Currently, she is the principle investigator in a multistate project that is studying the family engagement of parents of multilingual children in preschool programs. Dr. Cuéllar is the Co-PI in a collaborative project with Chapman University faculty that focuses on the education of multilingual elementary school children. She also provides research support to the the Alternate English Language Learning Assessment project, altella.wceruw.org.
Dr. Cuéllar graduated with academic distinction from the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education at Arizona State University, where she was a research associate for the National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics. She was an assitant professor at Humboldt State University in the Department of Child Development and a research associate at the Center on Teaching and Learning at the University of Oregon. Dr. Cuéllar also held a postdoctoral research position at the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Dr. Cuellar's research has been published in Teachers College Record, Teaching Exceptional Children, The New Educator, Education Review and other sources. She has teaching experience at the preschool, elementary and university levels.
Job Titles:
- ACCESS & Avant Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Senior Director / Accountability, Research & Evaluation
Job Titles:
- Technical Program Manager
Drew Linkon is a Technical Program Manager, where he is responsible for technology-related projects supporting WIDA's assessment operations. Prior to coming to WIDA, he spent 15 years with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's assessment department, working as the lead on the state English language proficiency assessment. He has a bachelor's degree in Journalism from Ball State University.
Job Titles:
- Director of Psychometrics and Research
Edynn Sato is the Director of Psychometrics and Research at WIDA and oversees WIDA's assessment research, technical assistance, data systems, and psychometrics. She has more than 30 years of experience in education research, assessment design and development, standards development and implementation, evaluation, training, technical assistance, and management.
Job Titles:
- Program Manager, Title III - a Lead
Job Titles:
- Assessments Administrator
Job Titles:
- Education Specialist, IDEA & Title
Job Titles:
- Director of Test Development
Fabiana MacMillan is responsible for overseeing development and design activities for the WIDA suite of assessments, including ACCESS for ELLs, WIDA Screener, and WIDA MODEL. She also oversees the Assessment Graduate Student Internship program and supports the WIDA assessment validation research agenda.
Fabiana previously worked as Head of Assessment at Rosetta Stone, where she oversaw all projects involving the development, validation, and implementation of assessments within Rosetta Stone's learning products, including a portfolio of standardized language proficiency tests in four different languages. She also served as Assessment Manager at the University of Michigan, where she managed the item banks of four secure, large-scale English proficiency test programs.
Fabiana has both a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics and an M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from the Fluminense Federal University in her native Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Fabiana has more than 20 years of experience in a career that spans management of language assessment programs, academic research, test development, teacher education and language teaching.
Grace Xin Li, PhD, has nearly 20 years of leadership and operational experience working on credentialing and English language assessment. She provides expert consultancy and innovative solutions regarding psychometrics, test design and development, scoring and analytics, and data management and operation. Grace has published and presented research at professional and industry conferences and served on advisory boards and committees.
Grace has nearly 20 years of assessment leadership and operational experience from which she lends expertise in consultancy and innovative solutions regarding psychometrics, test design and development, scoring and analytics, and data management and operation.
Job Titles:
- Director of Communications and Marketing
- Director - Communications and Marketing
Heather Buettner leads the Communications and Marketing team at WIDA; she is also a member of the WIDA leadership team. Her team encompasses communications and marketing, client insights, editing and graphic design, and the WIDA Client Services Center. Heather brought to WIDA over 20 years of marketing, innovation and leadership experience from the consumer products industry. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Colgate University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Heather spent more than 20 years in corporate marketing and innovation before joining WIDA. Her expertise is in strategic communications, branding and audience-centered solutions.
Job Titles:
- English Learner Assessment Specialist
Job Titles:
- Program Development Specialist
Job Titles:
- English Learner and Title III Education Consultant
Job Titles:
- Director of Consortium and State Relations
Jonathan has nearly 30 years of experience serving multilingual K-12 students as a teacher, district and state EL program coordinator. He leads WIDA's work to support and engage state education agencies across the WIDA Consortium.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Consortium and State Relations
Kris provides expertise in education policy, data analysis, and direct perspectives from our state education agency clients and external partners, while leading a team of state relations specialists.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director of Assessment
Job Titles:
- Program Development Specialist
Marco DALE is the new WIDA Spanish language development standards framework.
Job Titles:
- English Learner Education Administrator
Job Titles:
- Title III / EL Program Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Director, Language and Culture Division
Job Titles:
- Chief Educator Learning Officer
Meg has more than 15 years of combined experience in dual language instruction, curriculum development and professional learning. She brings expertise in educational technology, instructional design and cross-functional leadership.
Merideth brings more than 30 years of experience in non-profit and higher education program and organizational development to WIDA. Her expertise is in talent development, strategic planning, program evaluation and internal communication.
Job Titles:
- Education Testing / Accountability Consultant
Job Titles:
- Director of the Office for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education
Morgan Cox
Director of the Office for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education
(303) 866-6784
cox_m@cde.state.co.us
Job Titles:
- Director of Educator Learning
- Director of Educator Learning, Research, and Practice
- Director of WIDA Educator Learning, Research, and Practice
Diep Nguyen is the Director of Educator Learning, Research and Practice at WIDA. In this role, she leads the Research, Development and Professional Learning teams to conduct research, develop resources, design and deliver professional learning workshops and services to teachers and school leaders serving Multilingual Learners. Diep brings to this role a combination of scholarly insights as a researcher and adminstrative skills from her school leadership experiences.
Diep spent two decades as a district level adminstrator responsible for curriculum and instruction for pre K-12 students. In this role, she also designed and implemented transitional biligual education and two-way immersion programs for Multilingual Learners. Before joining WIDA, she served as Department Chair and Associate Professor of Education in the Teacher Education Department of Northeastern Illinois University where her research focused on teacher education, cultural and language identity of Asian American school educators and the long term impact of dual language education on students.
Diep has more than 30 years of experience in a career that spans bilingual program and district administration, as well as teacher education and research.
Job Titles:
- District Test Coordinator Liaison
Job Titles:
- Multilingual Education / Title III Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Director
- Executive Director
- Founder
Tim has been a language educator for more than 30 years. His expertise ranges from curriculum, classroom and language assessment to language policy and practice for multilingual learners.
Job Titles:
- Education Testing / Accountability Consultant
New District Test Coordinators should contact their Regional Accountability Coordinator (RAC) to create an account. If RAC is unknown, contact Wendy Wooten at wendy.wooten@dpi.nc.gov for assistance.
Job Titles:
- Assessment Project Manager
Job Titles:
- Researcher
- Quantitative Researcher