As a critical applied linguist working in global higher-education institutions that have an English medium of instruction, her main research interests lie in translingual practice, cultures of learning, and culturally and linguistically responsive teaching, as well as the interplay of discourses that circulate in these domains.
From 2015 to 2017, she was the founding academic director of the American Language Institute at NYU Shanghai and oversaw the expansion of the Institute into the NYU School of Professional Studies. She has also directed English language programs in Daejeon (South Korea) and Beijing for the University of California, Riverside Extension, where she also taught English as an additional language, as well as in the U.S. and Russia.
Hiller has a B.A. (magna cum laude) in linguistics and Russian language and literature from the University of Minnesota, an M.A. in teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and a Ph.D. in linguistics (applied track) from the University of Utah.