Distinguished Speakers
Learn from the experts! These select speakers were invited to contribute a high level of advanced learning, experience, and excellence.
Advocacy Committee
Hans Johnson is president of Progressive Victory. His consulting practice focuses on nonprofit advocacy, governance, data use, and strategy. He has advised and assisted coalitions or campaigns in every state. He is a widely published columnist and commentator on state and federal policy. He led grassroots advocacy culminating in Californians’ passage and preservation by voters of the nation’s first statewide ban on throwaway plastic bags. In 2020, he guided the Coalition of Practicing Translators and Interpreters of California in earning major exemptions from state law for professional translators and interpreters and protecting services for vulnerable communities.
Chinese Language Division
Chuanyun Bao is a faculty member and former dean of the Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation and Language Education at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He joined the faculty in 1990 after serving at the United Nations Office in Geneva as a staff interpreter. He is a council member of the Translators Association of China and a member of the editorial board of the Chinese Translators Journal. His research interests include translation, sight translation, and interpreting.
Government Division
Christopher Mellinger is an associate professor in the Department of Languages and Culture Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His research interests include translation and interpreting in community and professional contexts, translation and interpreting technologies, language access and policy, and cognition. He is the managing editor of the journal Translation and Interpreting Studies, co-author of Quantitative Research Methods in Translation and Interpreting Studies, and co-editor of Translating Texts: An Introductory Coursebook on Translation and Text Formation.
Interpreters Division
Robert Joe Lee is a researcher in the language field whose responsibilities have included, among others, implementing and managing a comprehensive program for equal access for limited-English-proficient (LEP) individuals in the New Jersey Judiciary for 23 years. He was instrumental in creating the Consortium for State Court Interpreter Certification in 1995 and guiding its test development efforts through 2008, including coordinating the development and/or revision of tests in 20 languages. He developed standards for guiding court systems in ensuring equal access for LEPs, and is a passionate researcher, language lover, and social justice advocate.
Japanese Language Division
Tomoko Tamura is an associate professor of interpreting and translation studies at International Christian University. She also teaches interpreting within the Graduate School of International Culture and Communication Studies at Waseda University. She has a BA in English from Sophia University, an MA in linguistics from the University of Michigan, and an MA in legal studies from Harvard University. She has 30 years of experience in interpreter training, both at Japan’s commercial training institutes and in higher education, including the Graduate School of Global Studies at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and Sophia University.
Science & Technology Division
Nic Jelinski is an assistant professor of soil science in the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate at the University of Minnesota. His research interests are centered around resolving problems of soil formation, enhancing access to soil information, and improving teaching and outreach for soil science in higher education and to the general public. He has worked in soils and land management around the world for state and federal agencies as well as the private sector. He has a BS and MS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his PhD from the University of Minnesota.
Slavic Languages Division
Anatoly Liberman was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1975. A professor at the University of Minnesota, he is the author of over 650 publications, 20 of them books, including three annotated translations of Mikhail Lermontov, Fyodor Tyutchev, and Evgeny Boratynsky. His areas of specialization include theoretical and historical linguistics (especially Germanic phonology and word history), medieval literature (with mythology and folklore), Shakespeare, poetic translation, and literary criticism. A Guggenheim and Fulbright fellow, he is the recipient of several national and international awards for his books. He has lectured extensively in the U.S. and Europe.
Translation Company Division
Anna N. Schlegel is vice president of product, international markets, and globalization at ProCore Technologies. Over the past 30 years, she has led globalization teams at many of the top technology companies in the Silicon Valley, including Cisco, VeriSign, VMware, Xerox, and NetApp. Her work has been published in Forbes, Fortune, Gala-Global, Multilingual, and on many other industry forums. She was named Most Impactful Woman in Technology by Analytics Insight in 2020. She was named Top Business Woman to Admire by CIO LOOK in 2021. She is the author of Truly Global: The Theory and Practice of Bringing Your Company to International Markets .
Get Ready for ATA62!
Get a glimpse of ATA62 in Minneapolis, October 27-30, 2021.