Steering Committee Members
Vivian Belinky
Los Angeles
Vivian Belinky is a certified administrative hearing interpreter and translator. For over 30 years she has been serving the legal and medical community throughout California individually and together with a network of language service professionals.
Carola F Berger
BUELLTON
Carola F Berger is a patent translator with a PhD in physics and a Master’s degree in engineering physics. After a successful research career in physics at institutions such as Stanford University/SLAC and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carola founded CFB Scientific Translations LLC in 2010. She is certified by the American Translators Association (ATA) for translation from German into English and from English into German. Carola currently serves as Webmaster of ATA’s Science & Technology Division and as Webmaster on the Board of Directors of the Northern California Translators Association, an ATA chapter.
Alaina Brandt
MONTEREY
Alaina Brandt is an assistant professor of professional practice in the Translation and Localization Management program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. In addition to serving as an ATA director, she is the membership secretary of ASTM International’s Committee F43 on Language Services and Products. She is an expert within the International Organization for Standardization’s Technical Committee 37 on Language and Terminology.
Marta Granados
Salinas
Marta Nava Granados has a degree in International Business Administration. She worked at UCSC as an Administrative Analyst before moving to Salinas to work as Director of Operations. Seeing the needs of the farm working community throughout California motivated her to change careers and has been working as a Certified Court Interpreter for thirty years providing services to courts, schools, non-profit organizations, workers’ compensation, community organizations and the legislative body of local cities. Marta is an advocate for education and was elected to serve as school trustee for over 12 years and later volunteered as a certified tax preparer for United Way.
Andrea Hofmann-Miller
Vacaville
Andrea Hofmann-Miller originally studied political economics with the goal of working as a statistician. One day, however, she met a professor from Oxford University who introduced her to the intricacies of the English language and she decided to add an M.A. in translation and interpretation to her economics degree. Prof. Hofmann-Miller has been teaching translation and interpretation at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (formerly Monterey Institute of International Studies) since 1994. She works as a contractor for the U.S. State Department and the German Parliament, among others, and has served as an official interpreter at the Olympics since 1996.
Lorena Ortiz Schneider
SANTA BARBARA
Lorena Ortiz Schneider earned her MA in Translation and Conference Interpreting from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey (MIIS) in 1992. She is an American Translators Association (ATA) Certified Translator and Credentialed Interpreter (Legal and Healthcare), California State Certified Administrative Hearing Interpreter, has worked for the US Department of State as Liaison and Seminar Interpreter, as conference interpreter for private industry and community based programs, for Worker’s Compensation, Social Security Administration, EDD, mental health departments, and the courts. Lorena is a licensed interpreter trainer and was on the Board of Directors of the California Workers’ Compensation Interpreters Association (CWCIA), is on ATA’s Board of Directors and is the current Chair of its Advocacy Committee. Lorena is CoPTIC’s founder.
Dolores Righetti
Escondido
Dolores Righetti is a graduate of the Acapulco State University in Mexico. For 14 years she worked at Mexicana Airlines and became the first woman to manage an airline company. She was President of the Public Relations Association for the State of Guerrero, Mexico. She started her career as an interpreter at Harris Hospital in Texas. Dolores lived in Italy for 10 years, where she studied and mastered Italian, working as a Certified Judicial Interpreter and at the American Elementary and Middle Military School, a part of NATO. When back in California, Dolores studied Medical Interpretation at the Southern California School of Interpretation, obtaining her Certified Healthcare Interpreter Certification in Spanish. She formed the San Diego Certified Medical Interpreters Network.
Jesus Rocha
Aromas
Jesus Rocha is from Aromas, CA and earned a BA in biology from UC Santa Cruz. While volunteering as a Medical Assistant through a UCSC sponsored internship in 1992, he fell in love with interpreting. Jesus then became a medical certified interpreter in 1994 and went on to get his certification as administrative hearing interpreter in 2002, and state of California court interpreter in 2013. Jesus has served his community for the past 28 years in the medical, civil and legal settings. He has also interpreted for several attorneys via a Spanish local radio station, addressing community and workers’ compensation related questions and concerns. Jesus’ interpreting travels have taken him as far as México City to Interpret a conference for The Shriners Hospital’s board of directors.
Jennifer Santiagos
Garden Grove
Jennifer Santiagos holds a BA in Spanish from Wheaton College (IL) and is a freelance Certified Healthcare Interpreter™ with 12 years of professional experience. Over the years she has also branched out into educational, immigration, community, and conference interpreting. When California Assembly Bill 5 threatened her livelihood and put language access at risk in September 2019, Jennifer decided to become a grassroots advocate with CoPTIC. She met multiple times with lawmakers, mobilized colleagues, and wrote an op-ed which was published in CalMatters in August 2020 during the home stretch of our advocacy efforts. Jennifer currently serves on the ATA Advocacy Committee. She resides in Orange County, California.