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CASLS Research Director Dr. Linda Forrest will be retiring in December 2019. Linda earned her Ph.D. in linguistics and is known for her talent of translating complex research findings into easy-to-understand language.

“Educators love Linda’s approachable writing style,” says CASLS Associate Director Mandy Gettler. “It’s precisely her use of language that has resulted in our Ten Burning Questions project being one of the most visited sections of the website even today, nearly ten years after they were first published.”

Linda’s ability to synthesize complex research findings is paired with her talents to conduct the research itself. Most currently, Linda has been leading the development of the intercultural and pragmatic framework used for the Intercultural, Pragmatic, and Interactional Competence Measure, which combined more than 50 different frameworks from various fields. She has also developed complex learning scenarios for use in the Virtual and Augmented Reality Language Training (VAuLT) initiative.

“Linda has been a driving force in CASLS’ research and development initiatives. Above all, she is an exceptional human being, and I have come to rely on her wisdom. Her absence at CASLS will be deeply felt, and I know that she will continue to do amazing things,” says CASLS Director Dr. Julie Sykes.

Those amazing things include the continuation of her genealogy research, traveling abroad, and spending time with her family and grandchildren.

Linda began working at CASLS as a research director in 2005 and worked as a data analyst for CASLS five years prior. She developed the first online course at the University of Oregon on the structure of English words.