Lorena Mancilla

Lorena Mancilla is Associate Director for K-12 Partnerships and Policy at MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, where she oversees a range of program activities that assist stakeholders at state and local levels in understanding and addressing policy challenges and opportunities affecting English Learners (ELs) and immigrant-background students.

Dr. Mancilla came to MPI with extensive experience serving ELs and immigrant-background students across early childhood and K-12 systems. She worked at WIDA at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During her tenure at WIDA, she served in a variety of roles, including Director of WIDA Early Years, and led the design and development of professional learning resources for EL educators across the United States. At WIDA, she also served as Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator of research focused on multilingual families and family engagement. More recently, she worked at Hope Chicago, a Chicago-based nonprofit where she served as Parent Program Director and contributed to the development of a two-generation scholarship program for Chicago students and families.

Dr. Mancilla holds a BS in human computer interaction and a MS in education from DePaul University. She earned her PhD in curriculum and instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a concentration in multicultural education. Her research focuses on the intersection of family engagement and language education.