The LSA is extremely pleased to announce the establishment of the Dennis R. and Carol Guagliardo Preston Fund for Diversity in Linguistics. The earnings will be used to support travel awards for linguistics students from underrepresented groups to attend the Annual Meeting. This new endowment will serve as the successor to the Committee on Ethnic Diversity in Linguistics’ (CEDL) long-standing travel awards to promote racial and ethnic diversity within the linguistic community, previously supported by LSA general operating funds.

This Diversity Fund is made possible by a generous gift of $100,000 from the Prestons (pictured at right), who have been longtime participants in LSA Annual Meetings and Institutes. Carol (1943-2019) was an ESL teacher for many years in Wisconsin, Maryland, Michigan, and held several teaching and teacher education positions abroad; she earned a BA in Spanish from Marquette and an MA in TESOL from Georgetown. Dennis first joined the LSA in 1975 and was elected a Fellow in 2013. He is a former member of the Executive Committee and was Director of the 2003 Institute. He has taught linguistics as a regular faculty member and visiting professor at many universities in the US and abroad, including, most recently, Michigan State and Oklahoma State and the University of Kentucky. He is also a Fellow of the American Dialect Society and was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Polish Republic in 2004 for service to Polish linguistics.