With the end of one year and the beginning of another, changes are coming to the NOTIS Board of Directors. 

We bid a fond farewell to two members. First, Adrian Bradley, who served in the Legal Division and on the Webinars Committee, and contributed in other, quiet ways to the smooth functioning of many NOTIS events. Second, Alicia McNeely, from the Translation Division and Social Media/Marketing Committee, whose graphic design work you have seen on our website, Annual Conference program and newsletters. We're glad to note that while Adrian and Alicia are stepping down from the Board, they've promised to stay involved with NOTIS.

Our organization is lucky to welcome two new Board members who will begin new two-year terms in January 2020. French and Russian translator Laura Friend is returning to Washington State and the NOTIS Board after a stay in Japan, and Turkish translator and interpreter Yasemin Alptekin joins our team for the first time. Laura and Yasemin will be elected by acclamation (as this election is uncontested) at the NOTIS Annual Meeting on December 7, 2019. Their candidate statements are below.

More about Laura Friend

"I am a certified translator of French and Russian into English, specializing in legal and business translations. I have spoken French from an early age, spending several years in France, and I learned Russian in college and graduate school.

In my spare time I enjoy literature, travel, music and nature. I am originally from the East Coast but lived in Seattle for 20 years until recently relocating to Port Orchard on the Kitsap Peninsula.

Because I appreciate the vibrant community of translators and interpreters that make up NOTIS, and especially the robust continuing education program that NOTIS offers its members, I would like to give back by helping to run the organization. I was briefly on the Board of Directors but had to step down when my husband and I moved to Japan for a time. Now that I am back I would be happy to resume my duties and rejoin this wonderful group of leaders."

More about Yasemin Alptekin

"I am writing this letter of intent to communicate my interest in becoming a NOTIS Board member where I can be of assistance with my academic and professional background in T&I in a capacity that would best serve the objectives and mission of NOTIS.

I have been a proud member of NOTIS and I have benefited from my membership considerably, as many other members have done, via training, conference and networking opportunities, all of which are essential for a field to grow bigger and better while gaining respect for its professionals.

I am a native speaker of Turkish with bilingual fluency in English with years of experience in simultaneous interpreting from English to Turkish and Turkish to English equally proficiently. My areas of focus are legal, medical and educational interpretation/translation as well as literary. I am also academically involved in translation theories as well as translating literary and technical texts. I have linguistic knowledge of French with some conversational skill, and Arabic with basic reading.

I have been involved in translation and interpretation work since I started learning English as a second language at Robert High School in Istanbul, Turkey. I started a Translation Club to understand the cultural nuances between the source and target languages to build strong bridges of communication. I later studied linguistics, literary translation theory and techniques while pursuing my BA in Western Languages and Literature at Bosphorus University, one of the top ranking universities in Turkey. When I came to the US for my graduate studies, I was hired by a Turkish Education Project funded by World Bank. During my years as a doctoral graduate associate working for that project I served as a liaison and interpreter for the Turkish delegations visiting the US, helping the administrators as a translator/interpreter for three years and as a Program Director later for another three years.

I recently completed all the requirements to become a Registered Court Interpreter in Turkish."