About

Chloe Willis, PhD

Pronouns: they/them
CV & resume

I am a researcher, linguist, data scientist, and educator with a strong background in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. I bring a people-centered, data-driven approach to solving complex problems. My academic research uses language to study the relationship between individuals, society, and culture. I have over 9 years of experience managing and executing research projects from start to finish in both collaborative and independent environments. These projects have resulted in five publications, with more on the way.

I earned my B.A. in Language Studies from UC Santa Cruz in 2014 with an emphasis in Japanese. After finishing my undergraduate degree, I briefly lived in Shanghai, China and then moved to Osaka, Japan where I spent a little over two years teaching English and traveling within Asia. I returned to my home state, California, in 2017 to purse a PhD in Linguistics at UC Santa Barbara. I finished my PhD in Linguistics in September 2023.

While finishing my PhD and for a time after, I developed features for Textio‘s workplace language guidance software. Since April 2024, I have been working as a Research Associate (Research Data Specialist II) in the Research Services Branch at the California Department of Justice.

Read more about my story in the Graduate Student Spotlight of the UC Santa Barbara Linguistics 2023-2024 Newsletter here.

When I’m not doing research or digging into some data, I engage in one of my many hobbies. Recently my favorites are crocheting, practicing local plant identification, and spending time with my beloved pets.