Meet the team
President
Melissa Wallace, PhD
San Antonio, Texas
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Term: May 2015 –
Melissa Wallace received her Ph.D. in translation and interpreting studies from the Universidad de Alicante, Spain. A certified court interpreter and certified healthcare interpreter, Wallace served two terms as an appointed member of the state Supreme Court Committee to Improve Translation and Interpreting in Wisconsin Courts and is completing her second term on the Licensed Court Interpreter Advisory Board of the Judicial Branch Certification Commission for the Supreme Court of Texas. Her past professional service includes serving on the Executive Board of the American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association (ATISA), chairing the Advisory Council of Voice of Love, and serving on the Standards and Training Committee of the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC) and the Webinars Work Group of the NCIHC’s Home for Trainers initiative.
Her research focuses on indicators of aptitude on court interpreter certification exams, non-professional interpreting in public service settings, language justice, and language access for forced migrants in US detention centers. She has presented her research in the United States and abroad, has published in international journals, and has co-edited, with Dr. Esther Monzó Nebot, special issues on the ethics of non-professional translation and interpreting in public services and legal settings, research methods in public service interpreting and translation, and legal translation and interpreting in public services.
Currently she is an Associate Professor of Translation and Interpreting Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio where she directs the graduate certificate program in translation studies. Wallace taught and conducted research in court interpreting as the Fulbright – University of Tampere Scholar in Tampere, Finland, in 2016.
Vice President
Christina Guerrero Harmon
Santa Rosa, California
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Term: November 2022 –
Christina 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, she grew up toggling back and forth between central Mexico and northern California. Her multidisciplinary career includes non-profit arts marketing in LA, management for higher education institutions through international cooperation and outreach in Mexico City, as well as an active solo and group arts practice in the US, Mexico, Finland, Lithuania and the UK. Passionate about equity in language access, she is currently participating in a translation policy research project initiated by SSTI’s Research Collaborative program. Christina is a Warré beekeeper and gardening enthusiast who loves to knit and dance sevillanas with her husband and daughter.
Treasurer
Jeff Killman, PhD
Charlotte, North Carolina
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Term: August 2024 –
Jeff Killman (Ph.D., Universidad de Málaga) is an associate professor of Spanish at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he teaches translation and interpreting courses in legal and other domains. His research centers mostly on legal translation and translation technologies, and his publications have appeared in various international edited volumes and journals. He is co-guest editor of a special issue of Llengua i Dret/Language and Law on legal translation and interpreting in the digital age and is state-certified as a Spanish court interpreter.
Secretary
David Gilbert, GDLP, JD, MSocSc(Trans&InterpSt), PhD
Victoria, Australia
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Term: July 2024 –
David is an Australian lawyer and a certified professional Vietnamese translator. He served with the Royal Australian Navy as a Cryptologic Linguist participating in numerous Australia-US-UK special operations. David held permanent positions in various government departments in the areas of security and intelligence as an intelligence manager, linguist, analyst and as a forensic translator. His doctoral research focused on Australia’s foreign language capability relied upon to meet national security objectives to include counterterrorism and combatting serious and organized crime. David has experience in investigative interviewing with the assistance of interpreters, including interviews where the application of coercive powers was authorized. He has presented at international universities and conferences on the topics of investigative interviewing and interpreting, national security language capability, evidence law and forensic transcription translation. He is a member of the Law Institute of Victoria and the Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators (AUSIT). David holds military awards for active service during the 1991 Gulf War and for service on submarine special operations during the Cold War.
David is currently Chair of the NAJIT Position Papers Committee. He is undertaking his second PhD at Bond University in Queensland, Australia. His research investigates how courts in Australia and the US safeguard the interests of justice when translated intercept evidence is presented in criminal trials.
His hobbies include physical fitness and creating visual art.
Past Board Members
President
Aída Martínez-Gómez, PhD
New York, New York
Term: May 2015 – May 2024
Secretary
Marianne Mason, PhD
Harrisonburg, Virginia
Term: June 2018 – May 2024
Vice President
Christopher Mellinger, PhD
Charlotte, NC
Term: Sept 2019 – Sept 2023
Member at Large
Marco Hanson
Austin, TX
Term: May 2019 – May 2021
Secretary
Susan Berk-Seligson, PhD
Nashville, Tennessee
Term: May 2015 – May 2019
President
Janis Palma
San Antonio, Texas
Term: May 2015 – May 2019
Treasurer
Holly Mikkelson, PhD
Monterey, California
Term: May 2015 – January 2017