Heidi E. Hamilton is Professor in the Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University where she teaches courses in discourse analysis and applications of interactional sociolinguistics. Her research interests focus on issues of language and Alzheimer's disease, language and aging, medical communication, and language learning.

Her books include Conversations with an Alzheimer's Patient, Language and Communication in Old Age: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, Glimmers: A Journey into Alzheimer's Disease, Handbook of Discourse Analysis (with Schiffrin and Tannen) and Linguistics, Language, and the Professions (with Alatis and Tan) and Doing Foreign Language (with Crane and Bartoshesky). Current book projects include Genetic Counseling as Discourse (with Benkendorf and Prince) and Doing Discourse Analysis across Disciplines (for Oxford University Press).