President’s Letter

Dear AATIA members,

This year, I’m grateful to be sitting here writing to you all in recognition of AATIA’s 40th birthday, as well as sharing with you some memorable moments of my first year as president, and all the opportunities we provided our members in 2024. 

2025 marks 40 years since AATIA held its charter meeting that formally created the association. Today, members benefit from a diverse and dedicated community of language professionals in Austin and beyond, as AATIA has matured into one of the most well-established translator and interpreter groups in the United States.

For the board, 2024 marked a year of great success — all achieved against the backdrop of a profound recognition and appreciation that we stand on an incredible 40 year legacy. We’re grateful to all those who have made AATIA what it is today. 

Most recently, we welcomed co-founder Albert Bork to our final general meeting of the year, in December 2024. The board was grateful to meet him in person, and it was an afternoon of learning and conversation we’ll remember fondly. 

We also welcomed co-founder Esther Díaz to our first AATIA team meeting of board members and coordinators in January 2024. After our meeting with Esther, we all felt inspired to continue the remarkable work of AATIA. Esther also continues to serve on the newly created AATIA Harvie Jordan Scholarship Committee. 

The AATIA Harvie Jordan Scholarship, named for the third co-founder of the association, is the project I’m most proud of since joining AATIA. As a first-gen daughter of immigrants, my career choice was a natural and obvious one, but my journey getting here ran up against barriers typical of my circumstances. I was supported in getting to where I am today. I believe we’re all community-made, not self-made (sorry, no bootstraps here). This is why supporting aspiring translators and interpreters is a priority for me as president, and this priority resonates strongly with AATIA’s values. AATIA has a long tradition of giving back to the community consisting of professionals working in the T&I field, as well as T&I educators and students. By setting up a committee, I hope to see this scholarship extend beyond my presidency. I’m especially grateful to our Director of Finance Michael Meigs for working alongside me on this project — from the moment the idea for a scholarship was sparked over coffee at Walton’s on 6th, all the way through to selecting the recipient and sending them their check prize. You can read more about the scholarship recipient here. Thank you to Michael and all the language professionals serving on the scholarship committee.

Needless to say, without the leadership of Esther Díaz, Albert Bork and Harvie Jordan (RIP), and all the leaders that went after them, we wouldn’t be where we are today. And I’m so proud of where we are today and what we were able to accomplish as a team in 2024. Here are some highlights:

We launched an AATIA Instagram page thanks to the initiative of our Director of Communications, Cynthia Truong, with our first post in October 2024. My, how times have changed since co-founder and The Letter editor Harvie Jordan wrote the AATIA newsletter on a typewriter and mailed each one out to members by hand. We continue to explore ways to engage with and reach our members. Find our new Instagram page at @aatiatx. You can also read a scanned copy of The Letter on our website, the earliest dating back to March 1987. Thank you to long-time AATIA members Laszlo Eosze and Laura Vlasman for digitizing The Letter and keeping our history alive, while also keeping up with current times.

Last year, we also partnered with Austin Community College’s Interpreter Training Program (ACC ITP). With the support of our Director of Professional Development Jeffrey D. Stewart, AATIA welcomed student intern interpreters from ACC ITP at our general meetings hosted six times per year. Our meetings covered such topics as team interpreting techniques, interpreting while being a full-time parent, translator visibility in the context of human rights translations, and more. Student interns simultaneously interpreted these meetings from spoken English into American Sign Language, and the experience provided an incredible learning space for our local students. Read more about one of the ACC interns here. Workshops Coordinator Laura Vlasman continued the strong AATIA tradition of providing our members with professional and skill development opportunities by organizing a series of webinars for court interpreters licensed by the Texas Judicial Branch Certification Commission (JBCC) to earn continuing education hours.

Coordinator Jamie Rising breathed new life into the Literary Special Interest Group (LitSIG), and also cultivated a strong ally in Alienated Majesty Books as a venue for public-facing community events. Jamie organized the 2024 International Translation Day event and revived the tradition of celebrating Women in Translation Month, with a reading featuring local Ukrainian-language author Oksana Lutsyshyna and AATIA’s own Michael Meigs. At Jamie’s invitation, AATIA co-hosted the final LitSIG meeting of the 2023-24 cycle, with Liliana Valenzuela and special guests Frank Báez and Anthony Seidman presenting on their collaborations and other related translation projects.

Director of Membership Dolores Gloria connected with the audience at the International Translation Day event held in August at Alienated Majesty Books by reading one of her poems. This event not only showcased the diversity of our field, but also illustrated the multifaceted talents of our board members. Secretary Tanya Sritanyalucksana stepped into her role recently and we’re grateful for the stability she’s provided the team, as well as her can-do attitude and eye for detail. 

Verónica Chertcoff had her hands full as both Spanish SIG (SpanSIG) coordinator and social media coordinator, where she collaborated with the American Translators Association (ATA) to create content and spread the word about our events and opportunities over social media. She organized regular SpanSIG meetings where she provided opportunities for our members to connect and share ideas regularly throughout 2024. In addition to organizing and bringing people together, Verónica indulged her passion for translation at our AATIA events, where she read one of her favorite translations at the International Translation Day event last year, and also presented at the most recent LitSIG workshop January meeting on her translation project. Verónica wears many hats on our team, and her ability to work collaboratively with everyone yields extraordinary outcomes for AATIA. Verónica, who is an English/Spanish translator with the Texas Senate, will be presenting at next month’s February general meeting. Mark your calendars for Saturday, February 8th. You don’t want to miss this one! Keep an eye on your email inbox for more information coming soon.

Last but certainly not least, current volunteer Marion Lemari and Workshops Coordinator Laura Vlasman supported all new board members’ transition in their roles and lent a helping hand wherever needed, especially leading the year-long aatia.org website redesign project and infrastructure overhaul. The overhaul of AATIA’s digital infrastructure — that includes the online presence, internal and external platforms, host providers, and communication channels — is necessary because the existing infrastructure has become outdated, costly, and difficult to manage for our team. Once launched, the updated systems will ensure that AATIA appeals to new generations of language professionals, hopefully extending the life of the Association another 40 years!

As I sit and write this reflection, I’m in awe of what we all managed to achieve together in 2024!

Finally, and most importantly, thank you to you, our dear members. Without your support and membership, we truly wouldn’t exist. Come along to one of our meetings (if you haven’t already) and meet us in person — we’d love to get to know you better! If you can’t make it to one of our general meetings, you can find us continuing the conversation at libraries, bookstores, and cafés all around Austin. Our Special Interest Groups — SpanSIG and LitSIG — hold regular gatherings where all members are welcome. We are here for you, and with you.

With gratitude,