ATISDA Elections 2025
MEET THE CANDIDATES
Please check your inbox for a separate communication with additional information on how to cast your vote electronically. The candidates have written short bios and prepared candidate statements for your consideration. Read on to learn about your candidates for the ATISDA election this month.
Nominee for President: Jamila del Mistro
Hello! My name is Jamila Del Mistro. I have been a member of ATISDA since 2024. I am running as a candidate for the position of President of ATISDA. A little bit about the candidate:
Jamila Del Mistro is a licensed court interpreter of Russian, Turkish and Azerbaijani languages with the State of California and a few other states. She was born and raised in Baku, Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, USSR. Jamila started working as an interpreter in 1999. Upon graduation from the university with degrees in Legal Studies and International Relations, Mrs. Del Mistro moved to the United States in 2002. She holds a Master’s degree of Law (LLM) in Comparative Law from the University of San Diego School of Law. Her fields of specialization are immigration, court/legal, conference, diplomatic etc. When Jamila is not interpreting or taking care of her family, she enjoys hiking, reading, and listening to music.
I am proud to be a member of the ATISDA. I consider San Diego my second hometown. Let us kick off 2025 by engaging with each other more and by getting those who are not yet ATISDA members to join this wonderful organization.
If elected, I will strive toward the following goals:
Increase the number of members to 100.
Continue to be a resource for translators and interpreters in southern California and supporting its members in achieving their professional goals, whether it is through networking, continuing education, or developing their leadership skills as volunteers in professional associations.
I would like to promote ATISDA’s member directory as a great resource to find a local translator or interpreter. I am a member of the San Diego County Bar Association and the Lawyers Club. I often attend SDCBA’s networking events and can promote our directory in the legal community. Attorneys and law firms often need translators and interpreters in their line of work. It would be great to suggest a local resource to them to find the language specialist they need.
Promoting Professional Excellence: I would love to help organize different webinars or in-person workshops on the topics of promoting professional excellence. We can talk about everything that makes us look professional, from physical appearance to behavior and actions.
Camaraderie: There is no better way to develop trust and friendship with your fellow ATISDA members than joining them in fun social activities. We can do chess competitions, visit local brewery or winery, go to a theater play together, go hiking, meet up for a coffee hour etc. I went to the last Holiday party and it was great!
Represent the Association at regional, national, and international events where possible.
Work with transparency, objectivity, and equity.
Among my volunteer work and involvement in professional associations are the following:
In 2024, I helped many new interpreters to get a contract job opportunity to work in immigration courts. This job helped the interpreters gain court interpreting experience necessary for work in state courts.
I supported many colleagues to obtain state court certification in their respective languages by recommending the websites to receive information or recommending study materials to pass the certification exams.
I often refer colleagues who are looking for more work to different T&I companies
I am an active member of the American Translators Association (ATA) and the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT).
I am in the process of starting a Special Interest Group (SIG) of Turkic Languages within the American Translators Association (ATA)
I will be presenting my first conference presentation at the NAJIT’s Annual Conference in Indianapolis.
I am ready to make a difference in our San Diego translators and interpreters’ community. I believe in communication, teamwork, and maintaining ethical standards. I look forward to working with the ATISDA leadership, and it would be a great honor and privilege to represent and serve all ATISDA members. Thank you for your support and consideration.
Nominee for Vice President: Emily Tell
It is with great honor that I accept the nomination for Vice President of ATISDA, and I would like to thank the Nominating Committee for their confidence in me. I would like to build on the great work of our former Vice President, Rafa Lombardino, and I hope to assist our Presidential candidate, Jamila Del Mistro, with her plans for the association once she becomes our next President. It will be my mission to provide continuous improvement to our translators and interpreters in southern California, so that we can help our members achieve their professional goals through learning opportunities, networking sessions, or certification and accreditation through other organizations. Thank you once again for your consideration. I am looking forward to helping ATISDA thrive in the next few years.
Emily Tell is a translator and interpreter from the United States who has been living in California since 2012. She has been a copy editor of the ATISDA blog since 2021. She started working as a Spanish > English translator in 2001 at an international law firm in Santiago, Chile. She has been a Spanish <> English interpreter for the New Jersey Judiciary since 2007. She was the President and CEO of the New York-based translation and interpretation agency, Tellmealgo, Inc., which later became Tellme Translations LLC. She also served as the Assistant Administrator of the ATA Language Technology Division from 2009-2011. Emily recently became a visiting teacher at bilingual immersion schools in the San Diego Unified School District to complement her linguistic endeavors. She has a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in Spanish and Latin American Studies, and a Master’s Degree in Linguistics. She has done postgraduate coursework in translation and interpretation at NYU and the University of Arizona.
Treasurer: Marco Díaz
Thank you for considering my candidacy. I am honored and pleased to be nominated as Treasurer of ATISDA. If elected, I will strive toward the following goals:
Receive and collect all ATISDA’s monies and give official receipts, keep records of all money transactions, and deposit all funds in a bank as designated by the Board of Directors.
With the ATISDA President, sign checks and other withdrawal documents regarding the use of ATISDA’s funds.
Preparing the annual budget.
Be fully transparent.
Among my volunteer work and involvement in professional associations are the following:
I served as president of ATISDA in the 2021-2023 and 2023-2025 terms and collaborated with board members and other volunteers in maintaining a line of communication through email, newsletters, and social media; revamping ATISDA’s website and directory; offering professional development opportunities based on member’s responses to surveys; streamlining the membership renewal process, and organizing the hospitality table at the American Translators Association 63 rd Annual Conference in Los Angeles, California, among other projects.
I served as a member of ATISDA’s Nominating Committee in the 2016-2017 transition and was Vice-President of the association in the 2019-2201 term. Additionally, I organized the Pensadores meetings (professional development for translators and interpreters working in English-Spanish) from 2017 to 2019 and managed ATISDA’s website from 2020 to 2021.
In 2020, I actively advocated for our profession by contacting and visiting legislators representing local districts within the San Diego area to educate them about the consequences of not providing an exemption for translators and interpreters in California’s AB5.
I have collaborated closely with the ATISDA leadership in planning and organizing events for the Association. I have served as webmaster of the Spanish Language Division of the American Translators Association since 2017 and was the Acting Assistant Administrator of said division in the 2019-2020 term. I am also an active member of the American Translators Association (ATA) and an associate member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI).
Marco Díaz is an ATA-certified English-to-Spanish translator specializing in legal & business, health care, and technical translations. He is originally from Guatemala City and has lived in the United States for most of his life. He obtained a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Electrical Engineering from Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in Monterrey, Nuevo León, México, and the Specialized Certificate in Translation from the University of California San Diego Extension Program. In addition, Marco has pursued several specialized workshops in legal and general, argumentative texts. When Marco is not translating or managing the business, he enjoys reading books, playing guitar, and hiking.
Secretary: Alejandra Hoffman
My name is Alejandra Hoffman and I am running for the position of Secretary of ATISDA. If elected to this position, I will support the Board’s Vision and Mission, and help ATISDA expand its membership to include translators and interpreters in different areas of expertise and create a diverse association in which we can all learn from each other. I was born and raised in Santiago, Chile, and have lived in the United States since 1991. In the field of translation and interpretation, I hold a professional certificate from UCSD Extension. My language pairs are ENG<>SPA. Right after finishing the program at UCSD in 2011, I joined ATISDA as a way of meeting professionals in the field of translation and interpretation. I have met wonderful colleagues at the Pensadores meetings where we have learned from each other with the spirit of professional growth and camaraderie.
My area of expertise is education. I have worked for the Vista Unified School District since 2016 as a Special Education Interpreter and Translator. In this role, with the district team of interpreters and translators, we created systems to request interpretation and translation services, trained staff on how to work with an interpreter, promoted communicative autonomy between the parties (parents, teachers, and staff), advocated for professional development, attended conferences, translated special education documents, school and department handbooks, communications from the district office, including the office of the Superintendent, interpreted at large events and promoted professional translation and interpretation services within the district.
I was also part of the team that created a 3-Tier System for qualified bilingual staff at each school site. With this tier system, we are able to evaluate the language abilities of the candidates and provide the 40 hour Community Interpreter Training to ensure that the staff who translate and interpret at the schools sites have the qualifications to do so and understand the role of the interpreter and the Code of Ethics. I am a member of the American Association of Interpreters and Translators in Education (AAITE), the Translators and Interpreters Alliance Network (TIA) from the San Diego County Office of Education, and ATISDA. This profession has allowed me to combine my passion for social justice, language access, and community service. In my personal life, I have two wonderful adult children who make me proud every day and a wonderful partner. I love to cook, travel, read, knit, take walks on the beach, and spend time with family and friends.
