Mariana Castro, Ph. D. is Deputy Director of the Wisconsin Center of Education Research at the University of Wisconsin Madison and a leader and researcher at WIDA, a project with the mission of advancing the academic achievement of multilingual learners. Castro has served the field of education as a science teacher, an ESL and bilingual educator and administrator, as a teacher educator and as a researcher. Her work as a qualitative researcher has focused on issues at the intersection of policy and practice in the education of multilingual learners.  Castro’s research on the language practices and language development of multilingual learners has provided a foundation to her work leading the development of language standards for K-12 students and early years, in both English and Spanish. She has also participated in local and national standards committees and policy groups, including the Wisconsin’s State Superintendent’s Standards Review Council, the Wisconsin Association of Bilingual Educators and the National Dual Language Forum. Castro’s current research focuses on language practices of multilingual children and their role in literacy development. Her work with multilingual children and their educators is fueled by a strong passion and commitment to social justice, equity and inclusion in education.