Lianna Pizzo, Secretary

Lianna Pizzo is an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education and Care at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She holds her doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from Boston College, as well as a Master’s in Developmental Psychology and Specialist in School Psychology from Gallaudet University. Dr. Pizzo has worked in the field of education for over 15 years as a school psychologist, family literacy teacher, program director, and educational researcher. Dr. Pizzo’s research has examined the instruction of American Sign Language (ASL) vocabulary of teachers of the deaf (TODs) who use ASL as the primary language of the classroom; the language assessment practices of teachers in an urban public school with a high percentage of bilingual learners; and the fidelity of implementation of assessments used to determine eligibility for services in Early Intervention. Her most recent work has begun to connect the bodies of research on spoken language bilingualism and deaf education to explore the language development of deaf ASL users who come from homes where a language other than English are present, or deaf multilingual learners (DMLs). In addition to research, Dr. Pizzo teaches undergraduate and graduate students in the Early Childhood Education and Care in Inclusive Settings program at UMass Boston.