Conference Presenters

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Andrew (Drew) Bahr is a practicing immigration attorney focusing on removal defense and an experienced interpreting instructor. Before practicing law, Drew worked as an immigration court interpreter and freelanced for assignments at the Department of Homeland Security, Virginia, and DC jails, federal jails and prisons, at white shoe firms in downtown Washington, DC, at many non-profits, and for the Virginia circuit courts. Drew enjoys reading science fiction, playing tabletop games, and trying new foods outside of work and teaching.

Ludmila Baker is a conference interpreter and a federally certified court interpreter. She grew up in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, and has lived in the United States since 2005. Her dedication and passion for languages awarded her an interpreting career that spans over a decade. She started as a staff medical interpreter for UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, NC, in 2007. In 2009, she obtained her state court interpreter certification and later became federally certified. She has had the opportunity to work in several states, including Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, Missouri, North Carolina and Texas, where she currently resides. Ludmila has also interpreted during several conferences for NGOs, the Government and private entities.

Carie Barrett, holding Texas BEI Court, Master and RID CI/CT certifications, is proud to be an alumnus of and former adjunct professor for the University of Northern Colorado’s (UNCO) Project CLIMB. In an ongoing effort to further the knowledge base of interpreters in legal settings, she co-founded the Community of Practice, Austin Legal, which has been meeting consistently since 2018. Carie has 25 years of presenting experience on various topics, including court and legal settings and ethics.

Prof. Karen Borgenheimer, MFA, is a classically trained, certified interpreter and translator who is regarded as a skilled, insightful and versatile professional who is equally comfortable in the classroom, the courtroom and at international conferences, where she has interpreted for heads of state, diplomats, the Department of Defense and Homeland Security and Fortune 500 companies. Her interpreter training workshops have been a huge success in the US and Spain. Over the past 20 years, she has trained hundreds of certified interpreters and interpreters-in-training. Karen is the owner of the Florida-based company InterpreterTranslation.com, LLC. Karen has been a university professor for 30 years and a professor in the Translation and Interpretation Program at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, Florida, for the past 20 years. She has presented at national and international conferences, including ATA-SPD, NAJIT, ATI, and CUICIID 2018, “Docentes de Vanguardia,” in Madrid, Spain.

Garrett M. Bradford is a professional interpreter and translator based in the Washington DC Area. He can often be found providing services for law firms, the Maryland Courts, the U.S. State Department, the Inter-American Defense College, and various other clients. He currently is an adjunct lecturer for the Online Certificate in Professional Translation and Interpreting program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has provided training for the Maryland Court Interpreter Program and taught an Introduction to Interpreting and Translation course at the University of Maryland. Garrett holds a master’s degree from the University of Maryland’s Graduate Studies in Interpreting and Translation program and trained at the University of Arizona’s National Center for Interpretation. He is a member of ATA, NAJIT, NLSC, and TAALS.

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Milena Calderari-Waldron is a Spanish interpreter residing in Washington State. She is WA court certified, DSHS medical certified, DSHS social services certified and DSHS certified English to Spanish translator. Since 2009, she has been advocating for the profession at the state legislature, succeeding in passing several bills. In addition, she has been involved in various successful efforts in the state’s judicial and executive branches. She is a drafting member of several ASTM standards and co-author of WA State court rules GR 11.2 and GR 11.4 and the ethics manual. Together with Helen Eby, she co-authored NAJIT’s Advocacy 101 manual and organized NAJIT’s first Advocacy Day at the US Congress in 2017.

Dr. Ángel Casas-Gragea is a college professor with more than 20 years of experience teaching and conducting research around the world, including Spain, Ecuador, Mexico and the US. He holds an MA in International Relations (Simon Bolivar Andean University, Ecuador) and a PhD in Economics (University of Cordoba, Spain). He has been an international aid worker in Bolivia for two years and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development in Mexico for six years, overseeing extensive education projects with the to encourage the development of the most disadvantaged indigenous communities. Ángel’s research interests include the political economy of regional integration, public policy and development in Latin America and Europe. He has authored and edited numerous publications. As a researcher, he was distinguished by Mexico’s National Council of Science and Technology as a member of the National System of Researchers. He is passionate about extra virgin olive oil and enjoys comparing local and Spanish varieties. He loves film and film history, and one of his favorite activities is discovering new trails in California’s beautiful Sonoma County.

Javier Castillo is President of Castillo Language Services, Inc., in Greenville, NC. He is an interpreter, translator, consultant and internationally recognized speaker.   He is a federally certified court interpreter, a NC AOC certified court interpreter, a certified medical interpreter (CCHI) and contract interpreter for the US Department of State, routinely interpreting for international delegations and high-level speakers across the United States and abroad. Javier is a frequent speaker and trainer at national and international conferences. He is the President of the Carolina Association of Translators and Interpreters (CATI), a director on the Board of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT) and head of the US Chapter of the International Association of Professional Interpreters and Translators (IAPTI), as well as an active member of the American Translators Association.

Maria Ceballos-Wallis is a FL/GA certified Spanish<>English court and CHI medical interpreter and a registered bilingual mediator (GA Office of Dispute Resolution). She has been a staff interpreter with DeKalb County State Court in Decatur, GA, since 2011. As co-founder with Barrie J. Roberts, JD, of InterpretADR, Maria is the co-author of the forthcoming “ADR Reference Guide for Interpreters.” In 2020, Maria and Barrie, together with Marjory Bancroft (Cross-Cultural Communications), developed “Foundations in Conflict Resolution and ADR for Interpreters,” the first online training of its kind.” A strong advocate for continuing education and the interpreting profession, Maria has been a trainer with De La Mora Institute of Interpretation since 2014, an instructor for the GA Commission on Interpreters (GCOI) Orientation Program since 2019, and has played key roles in AAIT, the GCOI Board and the GA Judicial Covid-19 Council. Maria also hosts the podcast “Subject to Interpretation.”

Fátima Cornwall arrived from the Azores Islands, Portugal, in 1993. Her academic achievements include an MA in Spanish from the University of California – Santa Barbara and a BA in Spanish from Boise State University. Fátima has many years of experience in different areas of the interpreting profession. She is a federally certified court interpreter and an Idaho court certified interpreter, master level in Spanish, and certified Portuguese interpreter. She has been serving as an instructor for different workshops and training sessions for new and experienced interpreters and judges for the past five years. Fátima is also a rater for a national credentialing program for interpreters.

Rob Cruz is a Certified Association Executive (CAE) and is the Association Management Executive for NAJIT. Rob has also served on the NAJIT Board of Directors for six years and was the Chair of the Board for three. He has been a practicing spoken language certified court interpreter in Tennessee since 2004. Mr. Cruz served on the Language Access and Disability Barriers committee of the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission, as well as on the advisory group Laying the Path: Creating National Standards for Language Access to State Courts of the Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants of the American Bar Association. He is one of two approved providers for the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Ethics and Skills Building Workshop, mandated for all prospective judiciary interpreters in Tennessee. He has been qualified as an expert in spoken language interpretation, interpreter ethics, interpreter policy and interpreter protocol in state and federal courts.

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Agustín Servín de la Mora is the president of DE LA MORA Institute of Interpretation. He was born and raised in Mexico City, Mexico, and has been a professional freelance and staff interpreter for 28 years. He was the lead interpreter for the Ninth Judicial Circuit for over a decade. He served as a member of the Project Advisory Committee responsible for creating the National Standards for Healthcare Interpreter Training Programs for the NCIHC. He was a member of the Florida Court Interpreter Certification Board and a voting member of the Technical Committee of the National Consortium for Interpreter Certification. He is a state and federally certified court interpreter and a certified medical interpreter. He has been a consultant for the Administrative Offices of the State Courts, conducting orientation seminars and advanced skills workshops for interpreters in at least 15 states. He has been featured as a speaker and presenter in several national conventions, including NAJIT, ATA, IMIA, and NASCA.

Christopher Dimmick has a passion for interpretation that is highly contagious in training sessions, which he has led from coast to coast since 2002. He has trained over 7,000 interpreters who work in more than 40 languages. Chris holds a degree in Spanish Translation and Interpretation and has done graduate work and received instruction in small group facilitation, learner-focused adult education, cross-cultural communication strategies, and the experiential-based training of language professionals. As a master-level certified Spanish court interpreter (Idaho, Oregon), a Washington State certified Spanish court interpreter, and a nationally certified medical interpreter – Spanish (NBCMI), he employs unique instructional techniques targeting various learning styles and building upon each individual’s strengths. In addition to training, Chris consults with public and private organizations on interpreter performance.

Sara Elizabeth (Elle) Dowd is a staff court interpreter in New York state. She has 5 + years of experience full time in the courtroom and worked as an independent contractor to kick-start her interpreting career. Her experience includes Spanish<>English interpretation in sundry work environments: medical appointments, disability hearings, social services, public school system meetings, and much more. She was an English teacher abroad for several years and considers teaching her passion. In her free time, you can find her jogging along the Mohawk River or fostering kittens.

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Maha El-Metwally is a conference interpreter in the Arabic booth. She works for a wide range of international organizations, including the European Institutions and the United Nations. She is a member of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC), the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIoL) and the American Translators Association (ATA). She is also a fellow of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI). She served as a member of the ITI Board and on the Membership Committee for six and nine years. Maha has an MA in interpreter training from the University of Geneva. She is associated with a number of universities both in the UK and abroad, where she contributes to the curriculum. She is passionate about technology in the field of interpreting and offers courses internationally on the subject both in person and remotely.

Helen Eby is a certified Spanish court and healthcare interpreter. She spent many years based in Oregon and recently moved to Washington State. In Oregon, she led efforts to improve the pay of Oregon court interpreters, which had not been increased for about 15 years. After that, she was the founding President of the Oregon Society of Translators and Interpreters. Currently, others have stepped up to work with Oregon court interpreters to bring professional issues to stakeholders. She is now the vice-chair of the Oregon Council on Healthcare Interpreters, where she continues to advocate for interpreters. Helen was co-chair of the NAJIT Advocacy Committee when NAJIT members did joint advocacy in Washington, DC. She is also involved in volunteer roles with NAJIT and ATA.

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Mariana Favila-Alcalá is a sworn translator in Mexico who specializes in gender issues and human rights. As a freelance translator, she has collaborated with a number of translation agencies and other institutions in Belgium, Costa Rica, Italy, Mexico, Switzerland, and the United States. Currently, she works as a full-time legal translator at the UNHCR Regional Communications Hub for the Americas and occasionally delivers workshops on gender and language. She is the co-founder of the podcast Tradhumanas de Nuestramérica, and has published articles on language, translation, and gender.

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Ludmilla Golovine draws from over 30 years of experience in the language services industry and is the founder and CEO of MasterWord Services, Inc., Ludmilla will speak on the subject of vicarious trauma from an insider’s point of view. For the past 15 years, she has applied her training in Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) therapy and trauma informed care, along with her skills as a master certified neuro-linguistic programming practitioner and a certified Demartini Method facilitator to help promote health and wellness for language professionals impacted by stress and vicarious trauma. She advocates for social justice and is a nationally and internationally recognized speaker. Her work has been recognized by numerous awards, including the California Healthcare Interpreting Association (CHIA) Trainer of the Year Award 2021, the Houston Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business Award; Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Gulf Coast Area Finalist, and Congressional Recognition G7 “Excellence in International Service” award.

Dr. Gabriel González Núñez is an associate professor of translation at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTGV). He is the executive consultant of UTGV’s Translation and Interpreting Office in legal and institutional translation and interpreting. He is also a former director of UTRGV’s translation and interpreting programs. He has published books and articles with highly reputable journals and publishers, including the monograph, “Translating in Linguistically Diverse Societies: Translation Policy in the United Kingdom” (John Benjamins) and the collected volume, “Translation and Public Policy: Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Case Studies” (Routledge).

Mylène M. Green is a federally and state certified court interpreter in California. Born in Santiago, Chile, Mylene has grown up with latin rhythms and enjoys an active lifestyle. Interpreting and fitness are two of her passions and she enjoys sharing them. Mylene holds licenses in the following formats: Zumba Basic, Zumba Toning, Zumba Sentao, Zumba Step, Strong by Zumba, R.I.P.P.E.D. and Cardio Sculpt.  She is a fitness instructor at Crunch Fitness.

Christina Guerrero Harmon is an ATA certified English>Spanish translator and California certified court interpreter working full-time for Sonoma County Court. She earned her BA in Studio Art from Pomona College (2001), her MA in Environmental Art from Aalto University (2008), and her legal translation and interpretation certificate from UCLA (2005).  Born into a bicultural family in Mexico City, she has lived as a cultural insider and outsider in Mexico, the United States, Spain and Finland. As a part time solopreneur since 2004, Christina has specialized in translating legal, arts, social sciences, marketing and civil rights texts. Her multidisciplinary career includes non-profit arts marketing in LA, English and Spanish as a second language, training for Finns in Helsinki and Mexico City, international cooperation work for higher education institutions, as well as teaching undergraduate cultural management courses. Christina is a Warré beekeeper and a gardening enthusiast who loves taking flamenco classes with her eight year old daughter.

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Édgar Hidalgo García is the director of TransInterpreting and has been an interpreter for over 18 years. He is a former coordinator of CalState Fullerton’s Legal Interpretation Program and an instructor for UC Riverside’s court interpreter program. Mr. Hidalgo completed his BA in Translation and Interpretation Studies at CalState Long Beach and his MA in Spanish at CalState Fullerton. He is a California certified court and medical interpreter and has worked as a staff interpreter in the San Bernardino Superior Court for nine years. He is currently on the Board of Directors of NAETISL (National Association of Educational Translators and Interpreters of Spoken Languages) and a member of ATA, CFI, IGA, and NAJIT.

Tamber Hilton is a practicing Spanish court interpreter and immigration attorney based in Tucson, Arizona and Washington, DC She is federally certified and court certified in the state of Virginia. She has extensive experience as an interpreter for the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) and state and federal courts in the DC area and elsewhere. She was admitted to the Maryland bar in 2021 and has a small immigration practice focusing on humanitarian relief such as asylum, motions to reopen, SIJS, and others. She has a passion for immigration issues unique to border regions, and regularly volunteers at a migrant shelter in Tucson, Arizona. She loves to hike and explore the mountains and canyons of Tucson in her spare time.

Miao (Maggie) Hong is a professional conference Interpreter, a professionally qualified federal court Mandarin interpreter, a certified state court Mandarin interpreter (IL and WI), a medical interpreter for Mandarin, certified by the National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters (NBCMI) and a “published translator. She earned her MACI degree from MIIS in 2011 and is currently a freelance interpreter based in Chicago. In addition to being a frequent presenter at translation and interpretation conferences, she also works as an adjunct instructor, teaching interpreting and translation courses at Hunter College’s MATI program. As an advocate for the profession, she frequently volunteers for professional associations. She is currently the vice-chair of NBCMI and board director of the Midwest Association of Translators and Interpreters.

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Judy Jenner is a Spanish and German business and legal translator and a federally certified court Spanish interpreter. She has an MBA in marketing and runs her boutique translation and interpreting business, Twin Translations, with her twin sister, Dagmar. She was born in Austria and grew up in Mexico City. She’s a former in-house translation department manager and serves as one of the spokespersons for the American Translators Association, writes the blog, “Translation Times,” and pens the “Entrepreneurial Linguist” column for The ATA Chronicle. Judy is also a frequent conference speaker, including recent events in the Czech Republic, Brazil, Sweden, and Norway. She is the co-author of “The Entrepreneurial Linguist: The Business-School Approach to Freelance Translation” and teaches translation and interpreting at UC-San Diego and at UNLV (University of Nevada, Las Vegas).

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Joshua Kahawai’s primary duties include managing the department’s $4 million budget and their interpreter recruiting and training program known as the New Mexico Center for Language Access (NMCLA). In addition to managing the budget and NMCLA, he also provides project management oversight within the department.   New Mexico’s Language Access Services program has been ranked number 1 in the nation by the National Center for Access to Justice (NCAJ). Josh holds a BS in Business Management with a focus in Project Management from Colorado State University. Prior to joining the NM Judiciary in 2013, Josh served honorably in the United States Marine Corps for eight years with several deployments to Afghanistan. Josh was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal for his services.

Katty Kauffman is a seasoned conference and court interpreter, a member of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC) and TAALS, and is an instructor at York University’s graduate school (Glendon MCI). Trained in Chile and the United States, her extensive conference experience includes presidential summits, general assemblies of international organizations, and countless events for the private sector. She regularly provides services in person, and more recently, online for the U.S. Department of State, the OAS and ECLAC, among others. In addition to her work as a freelancer in Miami and the Washington, DC, metro area, she has served on staff at the U.S. District Court for the southern district of Florida. Her language combination is ES/EN: A; PT: C.

Jeffrey Killman is an associate professor of Spanish at UNC Charlotte, where he teaches a range of topics, including legal translation, scientific and technical translation, translation technologies and translation theory. He holds a PhD, MA, and DEA in Translation and Interpreting from the University of Málaga, Spain, and a BA in education with a major in Spanish and a minor in bilingual education from the University of New Mexico. He also has a legal translation and interpreting certificate from the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain and is state certified as a Spanish court interpreter. He has collaborated as an English translator in judgment summaries volumes, published by Spain’s General Council of the Judiciary and a few books edited by EU law scholars in Spain. He currently serves as the vice-president of the American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association (ATISA).

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Carla M. Mathers, Esquire, SC, practiced law in Maryland and the District of Columbia for over twenty years. She is currently an independent consultant teaching legal interpreting. She also serves on the District of Columbia Courts Language Access Advisory Committee, the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf Legal Interpreting Credential Task Force and the National Association of the Deaf’s Video Remote Interpreting in Court task force. Ms. Mathers previously sat on the Advisory Group for Language Access to develop standards for language access in courts for the American Bar Association and on the Maryland Administrative Office of the Courts’ advisory committee on interpreters, sub-committee on ethics and sub-committee on testing and training. She serves as an adjunct instructor for the Gallaudet University Department of Interpretation and has been vice president for the Conference of Interpreter Trainers, and sat on the Board of Directors for the Deaf Abused Women’s Network in Washington, DC. Ms. Mathers is the author of “Sign Language Interpreters in Court: Understanding Best Practices.”

Athena Matilsky holds a BA in Spanish interpreting and translation from Rutgers University and a master’s degree in conference interpreting from Glendon College. She is a federally certified court interpreter (Spanish<>English), a certified healthcare interpreter (Spanish<>English) and an approved court interpreter (French<>English), serving as a staff interpreter for the NJ judiciary from 2013-2016. Athena was also editor-in-chief of Proteus in 2015.   She currently owns Athena Sky Interpreting, where she coaches students on interpreting techniques. You may find her practicing Acroyoga or studying French when she is not teaching or interpreting. Website: https://athenaskyinterpreting.com/.

Sandra McClure (She/Her),  a PhD candidate at Gallaudet University, has been working professionally as a sign language interpreter since 2009. She obtained her Master of Science in American Sign Language (ASL)-English Interpreting Pedagogy from the University of North Florida and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice and three associate degrees, including interpreter training and criminal justice. Sandra is nationally certified with a specialty certification in legal interpreting and K-12 education.

Dr. Esther Monzó is an associate professor in the Translation and Communication Studies Department at Universitat Jaume I. Between 2013 and 2015 she was a full professor at the Department of Translation Studies of the University of Graz, Austria. Her PhD thesis (2002) focused on the professional practice of sworn translators in Spain from a sociological perspective. Her current research focuses on the uses of translation and interpreting in managing diversity and intercultural and intergroup relations and on legal translators’ and interpreters’ habits. Her studies have examined K. Lewin’s action research, computer assisted translation tools, corpus linguistics, and legal translation training. She has taught at different European and Latin American Universities. She has also been a practicing translator at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization and the World Intellectual Property Organization (Geneva, Switzerland). Dr. Monzó is a member of the Institut Interuniversitari de Filologia Valenciana, the Institut Universitari d’Estudis Feministes i Gènere ‘Purificación Escribano’ and director of the research group TRAP, a thematic delegation on translation, identity and diversity of Linguapax International.

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Ernest Niño-Murcia is a freelance interpreter based in Des Moines, Iowa. As a state and federally certified court interpreter, he has served clients in the private and public sectors. Outside of court, he is a member of The American Association of Language Specialists and has interpreted for public figures such as Newt Gingrich, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds. He has presented live and online sessions for interpreters on topics such as ethics, skill-building and vocabulary for the University of Arizona, the U.S. Department of Justice and the American Translators Association. He has a BA in anthro-linguistics from Brown University.

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Janis Palma has been a federally certified English<>Spanish judiciary interpreter since 1981, also certified by NAJIT and licensed as a master court interpreter by the State of Texas. She worked as an independent contractor for over twenty years in different states, including legal and conference interpreting. She joined the US District Courts in Puerto Rico as a full-time staff interpreter in April 2002, where she held a supervisory interpreter position for six years before retiring in 2017. She has been a consultant for various higher education institutions, professional associations and government agencies on judiciary interpreting and translation issues. She is a former president of the Society for the Study of Translation and Interpretation (SSTI) and current chair of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT) board.

James Plunkett III is a nationally-known interpreter instructor and trainer of trainers. He also trains new judges and court staff on how to work with court interpreters. He is certified by the AOUSC as a Spanish and English court interpreter. He is a rater for a national credentialing program for interpreters. He has worked as a court interpreter for the 13th Judicial Circuit in Florida and as the Coordinator of Interpreting Services and Language Access Program for the District of Columbia Courts. He is the US District Court staff interpreter based in Tampa, FL. He holds a BA degree in General Social Studies from Providence College and was raised in Lima, Peru. He also communicates in Portuguese, some French and basic Mandarin.

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Adam Richardson MS is a graduate of NYU’s Master in Translation and Interpretation. He has translated Arabic, Baluchi, Dari, Farsi, and Tajiki for the US government and non-governmental organizations supporting strategic and tactical counter insurgency, counter terror and counter narcotic and refugee relief operations around the globe. He has contributed to books in Baluchi, Dari, Farsi, and Tajiki for the University of Uppsala and JTG Inc. He is currently translating the source text of his thesis, a collection of the 19th century journals of Naser Al Din Shah Qajar, with the intent to publish in 2023.

Barrie J. Roberts, JD, MA (TESOL), LLM (Dispute Resolution) has worked as the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) administrator for two southern California Superior Courts to provide high-quality alternatives to trial.  As co-founder of InterpretADR with Maria Ceballos-Wallis, Barrie is the co-author of the forthcoming “ADR Reference Guide for Interpreters.” In 2020, Barrie and Maria, together with Marjory Bancroft (Cross-Cultural Communications), developed “Foundations in Conflict Resolution and ADR for Interpreters,” the first online training of its kind. Barrie also created “Mediation as a Second Language” (MSL) courses to combine ADR and ESL for international students at UC Berkeley. Her publications include “Conflict Resolution Training for the Classroom: What Every ESL Teacher Needs to Know,” University of Michigan Press, E-Book Single (2020). Before ADR, Barrie was a staff attorney with Legal Services of Northern California, Inc.

María Isabel Rodríguez has vast experience in legal, conference, and broadcast interpreting. She is a Florida-certified Spanish court interpreter. Isabel enjoys traveling and has been to many countries on interpretation assignments.

Tony Rosado is an AIIC conference interpreter, US Department of State conference level independent contractor (highest classification in the federal government). He is also an attorney at law, a foreign legal consultant and a court Interpreter certified by the U.S. federal judiciary and several States. Tony has worked internationally as a conference interpreter and has interpreted for high profile court proceedings, Olympic Games, and TV broadcasts, including presidential debates and political conventions. He has worked with many top-level politicians, celebrities, athletes and entrepreneurs. He is the author of two books on court interpreting, a visiting professor at various universities in the U.S. and overseas, a well-known conference presenter, and the author of the popular blog, “The Professional Interpreter.”

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After majoring in Spanish and getting a master’s degree in Spanish language and literature, Daniel Sherr, was delighted to find a way to make a living and continue studying the language for which he had acquired a passion. At a stand at an ATA conference, staffed by veteran interpreter Sara García, he discovered a profession called court interpreting. Court interpreting led to conference interpreting and the possibility of working throughout the world. With the pandemic and the advent of remote interpretation, he has the opportunity of working on different continents on the same day. He spends part of the year working in Barcelona, Spain.

Javier A. Soler joined the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AOUSC) in 2008 and currently serves as a court interpreting program specialist. He is the project manager for the Federal Court Interpreter Certification Examination (FCICE) and as such, oversees management of the administration of the FCICE. In addition, his responsibilities include working as primary contact and liaison with the federal courts and formulating and providing policy guidance to the courts. Javier was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, and began working as a court interpreter in 1992. He became a federally certified interpreter in 1997 and moved to the Washington, DC area in 1999, where he worked as a freelance interpreter and trainer until 2006. In 2006, he became the court interpreting program administrator for the state of Maryland, and later accepted his position with the AOUSC in 2008.

David Svoboda is the Language Access Coordinator for the Arizona Supreme Court, where he has worked since 2015. He is a Federally Certified Court Interpreter and an Arizona Credentialed Court Interpreter. Prior to joining the Arizona Supreme Court, he worked for eleven years as a staff Spanish interpreter for the Superior Court in Phoenix, AZ. He holds a master’s degree in translation and interpreting from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Ithaca College, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude with departmental honors. He is a former President and Treasurer of the Arizona Court Interpreters Association. He has led numerous training sessions on court interpreter ethics, modal skills, and other court interpreting-related subjects for interpreters, court staff, administrators, and judges. David is also adjunct faculty for the legal track of the Spanish Community Interpreting Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

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Rodolfo (Rudy) Téllez was born in La Paz, Bolivia, and is a court certified interpreter in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, a national board certified medical interpreter and a conference interpreter. He is also an adjunct professor at La Salle University for the master’s degree in Translation and Interpretation program. He has served as the treasurer and vice president of the Delaware Valley Translators Association (DVTA), current chair of the Tri-State Language Access Coalition (TSLAC) that successfully advocated for better compensation in Pennsylvania after 14 years of inaction from the Courts. Humanitarian interpreting, he has volunteered his skills in the Dominican Republic for the past five years with a medical mission in Santiago de los Caballeros and La Vega.

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Elizabeth Vega has specialized in court interpreting for more than 25 years and believes that the decisions and actions of individual interpreters today will shape the experiences of others for years to come. She is committed to working toward a field of sign language interpreting that reflects the rich cultural, linguistic, and racial diversity of deaf people and the communities it serves. She is thrilled to be included in this SSTI cohort, working with Carla Mathers, Sandra McClure, and Carie Barrett to examine and advance the practice of interpreting effectively in court for deaf attorneys.