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The Director, Edwin Gentzler, has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Vanderbilt University and has taught translation at universities in Holland, England, and the USA. Before coming to UMass, he was an administrator for the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. His book, Contemporary Translation Theories (Clevedon: Multilingual Matters 2001) is widely respected in the field, and has recently been translated into Italian, Bulgarian, and Persian. He serves as coeditor (with Susan Bassnett) of the Topics in Translation Series for Multilingual Matters.

The Assistant Director, Görkem Cılam, has a BA from Mount Holyoke College in Economics and German Cultural Studies. She is fluent in Turkish, English and German. In addition to her passion for languages, she brings to the Translation Center financial expertise from her prior engagements as a business manager and a management consultant. Most recently, she became a finalist in the EntreClub / Mass Ventures Business Competition. She also works with the Five College Center for the Study of World Languages, developing a web site with language learning materials for Turkish.

Project Manager Shawn Lindholm has a BA in French from Rutgers University and has trained in conference interpretation with Professor Dan Martin at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She also speaks some Spanish and Russian and has five years of administrative experience in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Adam LaMontagne graduated in 2004 from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with an MA in French and Translation Studies. Upon graduation, Adam is continuing the work he began while a student at the University, as Chief Project Manager and IT Manager. He is also currently working on publishing his thesis, a translation of Beyond Civilization: Humanity's Next Great Adventure by Daniel Quinn.

Born in the United States, Elena Langdon spent most of her childhood and adolescence in Florianópolis, Brazil. After completing the MA in Translation Studies in December 2005, she has continued to work both as an instructor in the simultaneous and consecutive interpretation courses and as a project manager for multilingual long-term contracts. Aside from her work with the Center, she is currently translating a book about identity in Bahia, Brazil and hopes to publish The Wedding, her translation of Nelson Rodrigues's O casamento, which was her thesis project.

Maura Talmadge has a BA from Wheaton College, MA and is currently pursuing an MA in Translation Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is actively involved in translation work in Spanish and French, as well as experienced in teaching English in France. Recently she has worked as an interpreter affiliated with the Translation Center and is currently a project manager.

María Antonia Carcelén is pursuing a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She has worked as a translator for many corporate businesses and Law Firms in Ecuador, her home country. Antonia has a BA in Liberal Arts from Universidad San Francisco de Quito, one of the top schools in Latin America. She is currently interested in Humanities and Social Sciences as her area of specialization, as well as Literary Translation.

Matthew brings experience in graphic design, web design, copywriting, and marketing along with a knack for languages to his work at the Translation Center. He has come to UMass after several years in the “real world” to earn his bachelor’s degree in Spanish. He also enjoys playwriting, Macintosh computers, playing bluegrass music, and annoying / delighting friends with his amateur punditry. He plans to graduate in May of 2007 and move to Mexico for at least a year.

With a BA in Translation and Intepreting from the Unibero University in São Paulo, Brazil, Cristiano Mazzei has built a solid career in translation (English and Portuguese) in his native country. After having worked as a translator in different companies, including Young & Rubicam Advertising, Cristiano later on opened his own business, providing translation and interpreting services to major multinational corporations in Brazil. In 2000, after passing the board examination, he became a Certified Translator in Brazil. He is now pursuing his MA in Translation Studies at the University of Massachusetts.

Carolyn Shread received her Ph.D. in French and Francophone Studies at the University of Massachusetts in 2005, after a B.A. at Oxford University and a M.A. at Sussex University in her home country, the U.K. She has translated four books on economics for Routledge, and is currently working on a translation of a ‘Critical History of German Sociology.’ She is also interested in literary translation, and has published her translations of French poet Sandra Moussempès in several journals. In Fall 2005 she began an M.A. in Translation Studies, extending her involvement with the Translation Center whose dramatic development she has witnessed since she first started working for the Center in 1995.

Huda Yehia came to the United States in May of 2005 after finishing the Department of Translation in Baghdad, Iraq, her hometown. She was awarded a Fulbright scholarship in order to study translation at UMass. She has work experience in both translation and interpreting which has allowed her to contribute her Arabic and English language skills to the Center. Her research interests include simultaneous and consecutive interpretation and she hopes to further develop her talents within these fields.

Aaron Suko has a B.A. in Spanish (2004) and a Certificate in Translation Studies (2005) from the University of Florida. He is currently pursuing an M.A. in Translation Studies at UMASS Amherst. His areas of interest include Post-Colonial Translation Theory, Terminology, and Translation in sociology, history, and political theory. At the Translation Center he translates from Spanish into English and is planning on perfecting his information and translation technology skills.

Jorge Jiménez Bellver has a B.A. in English Philology (2003) from the University of Alicante (Spain) and recently presented his Thesis Proposal, "La terminología de las comunicaciones móviles: problemas en la traducción inglés-español". He is currently pursuing an M.A. in Translation Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst as well as working on his Doctoral Dissertation. His areas of interest include terminology, software localization, machine translation, etc. At the Translation Center he translates from English into Spanish and Catalan, and plans to combine language teaching and professional translation in the future.