Dr. Maria Cristina (Cricket) Limlingan works at Cultivate Learning at the University of Washington and has over fourteen years of applied experience in early childhood education research related to home, school, community and university partnerships, family engagement and dual language learners’ (DLLs) school readiness. She is currently the lead researcher for the Washington Research-Practice Partnership, one of the three states participating in Partnerships for Pre-K Improvement, a multi-year, cross-sectoral study focusing on improving the quality of state-funded pre-k programs. Prior to Cultivate Learning, Maria Cristina was a Postdoctoral fellowship in Classroom Intervention at the Developing Language and Literacy Lab at Teachers College, Columbia University where she worked on research related to supporting teachers who work with DLLs. Cricket also worked as a research analyst for the Herr Research Center for Children and Social Policy at the Erikson Institute and completed internships with the Education Development Center, working on Basa Pilipinas Project (Read Philippines) and with Abt Associates developing a research brief for the National Center on Hispanic Children and Families on integrated data systems. Cricket received her Ph.D. in Child Development from Tufts University. Her dissertation, which was awarded a Head Start Student Research Scholar dissertation grant, examined the relations between teacher-child interactions, classroom context and Latino dual language learners’ (DLLs) school readiness using a multi-method design. She hopes her research contributes to the knowledge that supports multilingual and multicultural children and their families from immigrant backgrounds to use their strengths in their learning in the educational systems they attend.