With this note, we honor the life and legacy of Elizabeth Buchter Bernhardt-Kamil, founder of
the Stanford Language Center in 1995 and director until her passing. Her research advanced
understandings of how learners acquire reading proficiency in a second language (see her
influential books Reading Development in a Second Language, 1991; Understanding Advanced
Second Language Reading, 2011; and Conducting Second-Language Reading Research, 2022).
A tireless supporter of language education and a staunch advocate for language instructors, her
work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the 2014 Distinguished Service to
the Profession Award from the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages (a subsidiary
of the Modern Language Association) and in 1999 she earned the Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award
for Distinctive Contributions to Undergraduate Education at Stanford.
The Stanford Language Center is currently looking for a new director (contact: Prof. Russell
Berman, Search committee chair).