Feel free to forward this
issue to colleagues and friends!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Greetings to All, and Happy New Year! 🧤
As we reflect on the recent past and look forward to the months ahead, NOTIS enters into 2026 with renewed energy, purpose, and an enduring commitment to serve our members, colleagues, and neighbors.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recent years have presented our community with a series of new challenges, from the dramatic arrival of AI* to widespread funding cuts, threats to language access, and socio-political uncertainty. The landscape is changing; we cannot deny it. As we struggle to respond and adapt, we must recognize, above all, the importance of navigating this odd and unstable terrain together.
|
|
|
NOTIS members gathered in December 2025 for a festive end-of-year celebration at the NOTIS Annual Meeting and Holiday Party in Kent, Washington.
|
|
|
|
|
In December 2025, NOTIS achieved a new milestone of 900 members — and counting! While our membership is principally concentrated in the Pacific Northwest, NOTIS members hail from a total of 37 U.S. states as well as 8 countries outside of the United States of America. |
|
|
|
|
We are stronger when we join forces, when we pool talent and resources, exchange ideas, and advance, in lockstep, toward common objectives. This is why we organize. It’s the reason our stalwart founders came together to establish NOTIS in 1988, on the eve of ATA’s 29th Annual Conference in Seattle, and it is, at base, why we’re still here — now more than 900 members strong! For most of 2025, due to a patchwork of unforeseen circumstances, NOTIS found itself operating with a historically lean Board of Directors. It sometimes felt as if the odds were stacked against us, but we worked a little harder, a little longer, and — with the help of several members who heeded our call and came forward as volunteers 🙏 — we accomplished all of our major goals for the year. But that’s not all — we took on some exciting new initiatives as well (see below**)!
|
|
|
Last year, NOTIS offered 37 for-credit trainings; stocked our on-demand library with 9 new courses; hosted more than 20 in-person gatherings, many of them purely social; set the groundwork for NOTIS interpreter practice groups; and gave away approximately $4,000 in conference grants for NOTIS members.
|
|
|
As always, a good deal more went on between the lines and behind the scenes. For a privileged peek, check out our 2025 Annual Report! There you’ll find a note from President Maria Lucas as well as detailed updates from our committees and divisions. What’s the Advocacy Committee been up to, you ask? How about that plucky troupe of literary translators? 👉 Click through to find out! |
|
|
At our Annual Meeting & Holiday Party in December (photos below!), NOTIS elected 5 new members to its Board of Directors: Elizabeth Adams is an ATA-certified Russian–English translator and transcriber with over 25 years’ experience working with literary, legal, and forensic texts; [...]
|
|
|
|
|
Svetlana Kupriyanova, who is also ATA-certified in Russian–English, has worked as a translator and interpreter (certified legal and medical) for over 20 years; Jen Mendez — who, right out of the gates, has volunteered to serve as our VP 🤸 — is a Portland-based German–English translator specializing in literary and medical translation; Cristina Moldovon do Amaral, a native Romanian speaker who also works in German, has over 30 years of professional experience translating and interpreting in legal, immigration, medical, technical, and governmental fields; Gauri Shringarpure, with two master’s degrees and fluent in 6 languages, has worked in linguistic validation for life sciences, and as a freelance translator, subtitler, and content creator in creative and medical fields.
We’re overjoyed to have them all on (the) Board and confident that their participation will be fundamental to our continuing evolution. (Stay tuned for slightly more... eclectic... introductions in the spring!) |
|
|
The 2026 Board of Directors convenes for the first time at the Annual Meeting & Holiday Party. Present at the round table, clockwise from left, are Gauri Shringapure, ex-officio President Laura Friend, President Maria Lucas, Secretary Norma Kaminsky, VP-turned-Treasurer Christina Woelz, Elizabeth Adams, Vice President Jen Mendez, and Cristina Moldovon do Amaral. On the small screen, NOTIS Communications Specialist Brianna Salinas zooms in from Spain. |
|
|
|
|
Board members gather for a January orientation session in the lovely home library of Kay Heikkinen. Image 1, clockwise: Laura Friend (with her back to the camera), Norma Kaminsky, Elizabeth Adams, Gauri Shringapure, Maria Lucas, and, split in two, Christina Woelz. Image 2: Laura, Norma, Elizabeth, and Gauri.
|
|
|
|
|
Also instrumental to our success, of course, are the 5 directors who have committed to continue serving in 2026. Maria Lucas will remain steady at the helm as our incumbent president and Legal Division chair; Christina Woelz will pass the VP baton on to new Board member Jen Mendez in order to fill our vacant treasurer position, all while continuing to make “good trouble” as chair of the NOTIS Advocacy Committee; Norma Kaminsky will stay on as secretary; Dubravka Martincic will chair our Member Care & Development Committee for a second year; and past President Laura Friend will remain available for support and consultation as an ex-officio member of the Board. To those who moved on to new ventures in 2025 — Rosemary Nguyen, Tiva Aga, Kay Heikkinen, and Eunyoung Kim — we extend our heartfelt gratitude for their many contributions and look forward to seeing our work together continue, in new forms, in the months and years ahead. |
|
|
Photos of outgoing “Boardies,” and ongoing members/volunteers, at 2025 events. 1: Christina Woelz, Laura Friend, and Rosemary Nguyen at our August picnic & potluck; 2: Loan Nguyen-Phan, Tiva Aga, and Ala Talo at the NOTIS 2025 Annual Conference; 3: Kay Heikkinen, UW Translator-in-Residence Sawad Hussain, and Tim Gregory at the Seattle Public Library. |
|
|
**Speaking of what’s ahead, we’ve got some excellent events and personal/professional development opportunities planned for 2026! To name a few:
-
New Board member, Elizabeth Adams, has established an *Artificial Intelligence Committee at NOTIS and will be hosting monthly meetups (example here) to talk with members about everything AI: from prompting and evaluating results to talking with clients about how we use (or don’t use) it.
-
The Legal Division has a new webinar scheduled on January 31 — Interpreting in Civil Protection Order Proceedings — at just $52 for members.
-
Our Member Care & Development Committee is preparing another round of conference grants to help NOTIS members attend major, career-changing conferences in and beyond our region.
-
The Community Interpreting Division will offer another session on vicarious trauma for interpreters in March; several other webshops on a wide variety of topics are already on the calendar for 2026.
-
Our NW Literary Translators are collaborating on a series of events for the May 2026 visit of award-winning Indonesian–English translator and author Tiffany Tsao: UW Translation’s 3rd-annual Translator in Residence. Click here to read more about Tsao’s visit in the UW TS Hub’s January newsletter.
Save the date! The NOTIS 2026 Annual Conference is scheduled for Saturday, September 12, and it’s going to be a big one!
Additionally, we’re looking forward to many more in-person, online, and on-demand events throughout the year. Want to propose an educational event or plan a get-together in your area (with financial and/or promotional support from NOTIS)? Look no further! We are also exploring the possibility of hosting a T&I career fair in 2026, as well as some town-hall style meetups where we’ll dialogue with members and colleagues about their hopes, needs, interests, and concerns. Finally, thank you. None of this would be possible without you and your commitment to our chosen, ever-changing, profession. We are endlessly grateful for all you do, and we hope you will join us as we work together to grow — and evolve — as the Northwest Translators and Interpreters Society. With all our best,
Your colleagues at NOTIS |
|
|
More from the Holiday Party 🧣 |
|
|
In this order, Hilda wins the gingerbread decorating contest, attendees fill their plates with homemade potluck offerings, Jen Mendez sings, members connect over lunch (x2), Katerina dances, and Emma Garvaki formally introduces our new Board members. 👀 For even more festive photos, check out our 2025 slideshow! |
|
|
|
|
Sponsored content from UW Medicine, valued platinum-level sponsors of the NOTIS 2024 Annual Conference!
UW Medicine is currently recruiting Tigrinya and Korean–English medical interpreters. To inquire, visit washington.edu/jobs, click “Find Staff and Healthcare Jobs,” and type “interpreter” into the search field. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
To learn more about our upcoming events, visit our main website calendar. Interested in our on-demand offerings? Click here! |
|
|
Also of Note 🗞️ ️
-
Felicitaciones to Helen Eby on her recent election to the ATA Board of Directors!
-
Attention Vancouverites! UW Translation co-lead and Slavic Languages & Literatures Professor Sasha Senderovich will be in your neck of the woods for the Jewish Book Festival on Feb. 23 to discuss his and Harriet Murav’s In the Shadow of the Holocaust: Short Fiction by Jewish Writers from the Soviet Union. Click here for festival info.
-
The National Code of Ethics for Interpreters in Health Care has been updated, and your input matters. To review the draft and share your insights, click here and scroll through. Deadline: Feb. 16.
-
Good news! The U.S. House and Senate have approved $540 million for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) for 2026, preserving 96% of the funding that LSC disburses to nonprofit legal organizations, like the Northwest Justice Project, across the country.
-
Mia Spangenberg’s 2025 translation, A Magician’s Flower, by Marika Maijala, has been the subject of much, well-deserved praise. Find it here on bookshop.org. Brava!
Congratulazioni to NW Literary Translator Zakiya Hanafi on the September 2025 publication of Vitam Instituere: A Genealogy of the Institution, yet another successful collaboration with Italian theoretical philosopher (and author) Roberto Esposito. -
Registration is open for the CHIA 2026 Annual Education Conference, happening March 6–7 in San Francisco. This year, 3 popular NOTIS presenters will take to the podium to share their expertise: Yuliya Speroff on promoting health equity through language access, Sara Greenlee on surgical terminology, and Marisa Rueda Will on the communication challenges associated with breast and GI cancer medications. Visit CHIA’s conference page to learn more.
-
Spanish-speaking volunteers needed to interpret or help with set-up and intake at upcoming *free* legal clinics (April 8, May 13) hosted by the Latino Bar Association of Washington (LBAW) at El Centro de la Raza. Learn more and sign up for a shift here!
Have something to share? A call for submissions, papers, or proposals? A recent publication? An upcoming event, volunteer opportunity, or scholarship? Email our publications director at social@notisnet.org. |
|
|
About Our Publications ️🗞️
Each year, in addition to regular blog posts, NOTIS publishes four quarterly newsletters. The principal objective of our publications is to inform, educate, and entertain.
The 2025 editorial team is led by Brianna Salinas, NOTIS Marketing and Communications Specialist, as editor-in-chief. Her trusty advisors and co-editors are Jen Mendez, Kay Heikkinen, and Zakiya Hanafi.
Letters to the editor, short translations or articles, anecdotes, images, calendar items, and other announcements are both welcome and encouraged. For more information, please see our call for submissions.
To submit content, place an advertisement, or for any other inquiries, please contact our team by emailing social@notisnet.org. ☐ |
|
|
Thank you for reading
the winter 2025/2026 issue
of NW News Quarterly! 🧤 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
