Dr. Maria Luci De Biaji Moreira (Luci Moreira) was born in Brazil, where she received her B.A. and M.A. She obtained her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics with a Certificate in SLATE (Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Education) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

She began teaching Portuguese in Brazil. She also taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Georgia, and the University of California-Berkeley. She has been with the College of Charleston since 2000. The linguistic and cultural diversity of these places and in Brazil as well have shaped her perceptions of how she sees cultures, languages, and teaching.

In addition to teaching, Dr. Moreira is in charge of the Portuguese program at the College of Charleston. She has directed the Brazil Summer Abroad Program for four years, taking students to remote areas of Brazil, such as the Amazon jungle and Marajó Island in the delta of the Amazon River. She is co-author of Ponto de Encontro: Portuguese as a World Language, a textbook published by Prentice Hall and released in 2007, and has been the Editor of the AATSP Portuguese Newsletter for many years.

Having established her home in Charleston, Dr. Moreira frequently visits the Charlestonian historic plantations and enjoys late afternoons on Folly beach, where the warm waters of the Atlantic in South Carolina are reminiscent of the waters of the Northeast of Brazil.