Lily Wong Fillmore

Dr. Lily Wong Fillmore, Jerome A. Hutto Professor Emerita, University of California at Berkeley, is a linguist and an educator. Over the past 40 years, she has studied the process by which children learn the societal language as a second language, how the learning of a second language affects the retention and continued development of the primary language, and how language shift and loss can affect families and communities. Her interest in teaching and learning runs the full gamut from infancy to adulthood, and is reflected in the work she has done on the family’s role in the socialization of children for learning, language, and literacy development from K-12, and in her directorship of a University of California doctoral program for Indian Leaders in New Mexico.

She is retired from the University of California faculty, but continues her work on language and literacy development in partnership with the Council of Great City Schools, the national organization of the 65 largest urban school districts in the country.

“Children are a family’s link to the future, just as families are a community’s promise for the future.  It will take families working with communities to give new life to indigenous languages and cultures.” – Dr. Lily Wong Fillmore