Lena holds a Master’s Degree in Education with an emphasis in Social Justice and Leadership from Antioch University Santa Barbara, where she did research on the topic of children who are used as interpreters and with her thesis focusing on the creation of an evaluation system of interpretation and translation services in school districts. As an educator, activist and advocate, Lena’s expertise has led her to design and facilitate workshops and trainings nationally and internationally on interpretation, translation as well as diversity, equity, inclusion and justice and provide linguistically inclusive design and language justice consulting.
Lena works with a wide range of clients in the private and public sectors to design and implement linguistically inclusive practices, trainings and processes. Lena has also worked with clients to assess and improve internal and external language access and language justice practices. Lena is also a frequent speaker and presenter at conferences and workshops, sharing her expertise and best practices for creating linguistically inclusive environments.
Lena is a licensed trainer for The Community Interpreter, a program of Cross-Cultural Communications, an interpreter and translator and expert in the field of language justice.
Lena is the founder and CEO of Bridging Voices- Uniendo Voces, Adjunct Faculty at Santa Barbara City College, Board of Trustees member of Wilderness Youth Project and the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation.
