GUEST SPEAKERS
Learn from the experts!
These select speakers were chosen to contribute a high level of advanced learning, experience, and excellence.
Invited by the American Foundation for Translation and Interpretation
Mohamed Abdel-Kader is the executive director of the Stevens Initiative, a program of the Aspen Institute. In this role, he leads an international effort to build global competence skills for young people in the U.S., the Middle East, and North Africa.
He previously served as deputy assistant secretary in the International and Foreign Language Division at the Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education. He was responsible for encouraging and promoting the study of foreign languages and the study of the cultures of other countries at the elementary, secondary, and postsecondary levels in the U.S.
Before joining the Department of Education, he served as the director of development for the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and managed the university’s advancement strategy in the Middle East, where he focused on major gifts and strategic engagement. Previously, he developed international partnerships and led donor development efforts for the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University.
Presenting the following session: Keynote
Invited by the Educators Division
Maria González-Davies is a freelance translator and associate professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Education at the University Ramon Llull (Barcelona, Spain). She taught English and translation at the School of Modern Languages (University of Barcelona), where she was the co-director of the English Department. She was the founder and coordinator of the translation section and head of the Translation Department at the University of Vic. Her articles and books have been published internationally. Her most recent publication includes a chapter in Teaching Translation Programs, Courses, Pedagogies (L. Venuti, ed., 2016). She is the co-editor (with Dr. Dorothy Kelly) of the journal The Interpreter and Translator Trainer (Routledge).
Invited by the French Language Division
Rosalinda Meza-Steel speaks English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. She has an LL.M and a JD from The George Washington University Law School, graduate degrees in international conference interpreting and linguistics applied to translation from the École Supérieure d’Interprètes et des Traducteurs in Paris, and a BA from Bryn Mawr College in French literature. She has worked as a freelance translator in Paris, London, and Washington, DC, and as a permanent staff member of the World Bank Group, serving as chief interpreter from 1990 to 2001. She currently teaches at the University of Maryland’s Graduate Studies in Interpreting and Translation program.
Invited by the German Language Division
Karin Königs is a freelance lecturer in English>German translation. She has given workshops for numerous organizations, including the German Federal Association of Interpreters and Translators, German Academic Exchange Service, and University of Salford, U.K. She was a senior lecturer for English>German translation for over 20 years at the Language Department of the Cologne University of Applied Sciences. Previously, she worked with several German federal authorities, including the Federal Ministry for Scientific Research. She has a graduate degree in translation from Heidelberg University, Germany. She is the author of the textbook Übersetzen Englisch-Deutsch: Lernen mit System.
Invited by the Interpreters Division
Cheri Wilson is a subject matter expert in the areas of diversity and inclusion, cultural and linguistic competence, and health equity. Previously, she served as the director of the corporate office of Diversity and Inclusion at RWJBarnabas Health in New Jersey. She was a faculty member in the Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for almost five years. She is particularly interested in health and health care disparities and health equity related to racial/ethnic, language, and gender and sexual minorities, as well as the provision of culturally competent patient-centered care.
Invited by the Italian Language Division
Annamaria Testa began her career as a copywriter in 1974, and has been a registered journalist since 1988. She taught courses at La Sapienza University (1994-95), Università di Lingue e Comunicazione a Milano (1998-2006), and Bocconi University (2007-16). In 2012, she was the first woman from the advertising industry in 25 years to be inducted into the Italian Art Directors Club’s Hall of Fame. She has been editing the nonprofit website Nuovo e Utile on creativity topics since 2008. She has published a book of short stories and seven essays on creativity and communication.
Invited by the Japanese Language Division
J. Keith Vincent is chair of the World Languages and Literatures Department at Boston University, where he teaches Japanese literature, gender and sexuality studies, and translation. His translation of Okamoto Kanoko’s A Riot of Goldfish (Hesperus Press, 2010) won the 2011 U.S. Japan Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature, and his translation of Tanizaki Junichirou’s novella Devils in Daylight will be published this year from New Directions.
Invited by the Korean Language Division
Young-mee Yu Cho has been head of the Korean Language program in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at Rutgers University for the past 20 years. She has published extensively on Korean linguistics and Korean-language education, including the Integrated Korean textbook series. She also conducts research on Korean/Japanese honorifics and the development of Korean hip-hop lyrics. She developed a translation course entitled “Korean Translation: Introduction to Practical Translation and Translation Theories,” which has been offered at Rutgers University since 2013. She has a PhD in linguistics from Stanford University.
Invited by the Literary Division
Katrina Dodson is a writer, teacher, and translator of Brazilian literature. Her translation of Clarice Lispector’s The Complete Stories was awarded the 2016 ATA Lewis Galantiere Prize, the PEN Translation Prize, and a Northern California Book Award. She is currently adapting her Lispector translation journal into a book and translating the 1928 Brazilian modernist classic Macunaíma: The Hero without a Character, by Mário de Andrade, for New Directions. She serves as a mentor in the MFA in Translation Program at Mills College. She has a PhD in comparative literature from the University of California, Berkeley.
Invited by the Medical Division
Bruce Adelson is a former senior trial attorney for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He is a nationally recognized speaker and expert on federal language access legal mandates for health care. He has given presentations for many organizations, including The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Cornell University, Harvard University, Kaiser Permanente, Memorial Hermann Health System (Texas), Memorial Health System (Colorado), Frederick Memorial Hospital (Maryland), and the American Society of Health Care Risk Managers.
Invited by the Nordic Division
Petra Glimåker-Socolovsky is the chair of The Swedish School for Children in Washington, DC. A freelance contributor for Swedish Public Radio, she covers U.S. culture, religion, and politics. Previously, she reported from Spain and the Netherlands. She speaks Dutch, English, and Spanish, as well as her native Swedish.
Invited by the Portuguese Language Division
David Coles has been teaching interpreting for almost as long as he has practiced it: 20 years. With a background in teaching English as a foreign language and teacher training, he has taught courses at the Associação Alumni and through his own experimental InterSTUDIO. Recent projects include crowd-funding short courses and working with colleagues in Buenos Aires who want to hone their English>Portuguese interpreting skills. He specializes in health-related fields. He has presented on interpreting at several conferences in São Paulo.
Invited by the Slavic Languages Division
Nikolai Sorokin‘s 35-year career working for the U.S. government included writing, broadcasting, and eventually becoming an editor and special correspondent for the Voice of America’s Russian branch and, more recently, heading the general branch of the U.S. State Department’s Office of Language Services (covering interpreters for non-European Union languages). Born in Turkey, where his Russian family emigrated during the 1917 revolution, he has lived in the U.S. since childhood. He has an MA in Russian literature from the University of Chicago and currently teaches interpreting at the University of Maryland. He is also the editor of Rossica, a philatelic journal.
Invited by the Spanish Language Division
Guillermo Cabanellas is a lawyer. He has a licenciate in economics (University of Buenos Aires), a master’s degree in comparative law (University of Illinois), and a Doctor of Juridical Science (University of Illinois). He was a visiting and adjunct professor at the law schools of the University of Illinois, Loyola University (Los Angeles), and University of Miami (1977-2015). He was a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute in Munich (1981, 1982, 1987). He has also been a professor at the universities of Buenos Aires, Austral, and San Andres (Argentina). He is the author of more than 40 books, including several bilingual dictionaries, and 100 articles on legal and translation matters that have been published in Argentina, the U.S., U.K., and Germany.
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