Meet the team
Vice President
Christina Guerrero Harmon
Santa Rosa, California
contact SSTI
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
contact SSTI
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
contact SSTI
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.
Member
Andrew Tucker, PhD
contact SSTI
Term: December 2025 –
Dr. Andrew Tucker was born in Alabama, where hearing classmates speak Spanish sparked his interest in languages. A high school career assessment later suggested he shared many traits with translators, prompting him to explore the field more seriously. With no translation programs available nearby, he pursued Spanish instead, ultimately earning a BA in Spanish and a Master of Hispanic Studies from Auburn University. During his studies, he spent time in Mexico, fell in love with the country, and decided to move there after graduation to seek translation work. He began his career as an in-house translator at a law firm in Mexico City, where he worked for several years. During this time, he completed a translation certificate through New York University and transitioned into full-time freelance translation.
His clients included law firms, multinational companies, and translation agencies throughout the Americas and Europe. Andrew also discovered an interest in teaching translation, which led him to pursue a PhD in Translation Studies at Kent State University.
There, he conducted research on translation pedagogy and served as an interpreter for migrant workers seeking medical care in Northeast Ohio. In total, he has taught or developed legal translation coursework for four universities, including Southeast Missouri State University, where he currently teaches Spanish grammar, translation, interpreting, and terminology as an assistant professor. In his free time, he enjoys taking long walks and building model starships. He is excited to work with SSTI and NAJIT and to contribute to initiatives that strengthen the visibility of court interpreters and legal translators nationwide. Andrew’s depth of knowledge about pedagogy as well as his experience as a translator enrich SSTI’s collective areas of expertise.
Member
Chantal Portillo, PhD
contact SSTI
Term: December 2025 –
Dr. Chantal Portillo was born in the USA and raised in Spain, which provided her with a bi-cultural and bilingual family background from a young age. At the age of 12, a documentary on the interpreters of the II World War during the Nuremberg trials sparked an interest in the translation and interpretation field, which then led to a BA in Translation and Interpretation, and later to a master’s and PhD in fields related to intangible heritage, sustainable tourism, and intercultural interpretation in translation. During the first 10 years of her professional career, Chantal was a conference interpreter in Spain, Also, during that time, she was certified by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a judicial translator and interpreter. After moving to the US and working as a certified medical interpreter for a year, Chantal got certified as a judicial interpreter with the Oregon Judicial Department (OJD) and started working in 2015 as an independent contractor for local agencies and the courts. In 2020, and after 23 years of being an independent contractor, Chantal was hired by Court Language Access Services (CLAS), within the OJD as a staff interpreter, her current placement.
In 2020 Chantal also obtained the ATA certification as an English to Spanish translator, and became certified as a judiciary interpreter in both California and New Mexico. Since 2021, Chantal has presented in state conferences in Oregon for OJD and the Oregon Society for Translators and Interpreters (OSTI), and at the national level for NAJIT in 2024 and ATA in 2025. Chantal loves to give back to the community and is involved in two NAJIT committees, the Advocacy Committee and the Position Paper Committee. She is also a volunteer localization translation reviewer for the Secretary of Oregon’s translations review committee of materials used for Oregon elections.
In her free time, Chantal loves hiking, doing Pilates and yoga, roller skating, furniture refurbishing and crafting with recycled materials and nature’s bounty. Chantal brings a unique academic perspective and a wealth of professional experience to our team.
Past Board Members
President
Melissa Wallace, PhD
San Antonio, Texas
Term: May 2015 – May 2026
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