BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Board of Directors

Pency Tsai

President

president@atio.on.ca

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Pency Tsai is a Certified Community Interpreter (ATIO) who has been freelancing as a translator and interpreter for more than 10 years.

Translation formed the building blocks of her interpreting skills and will always be a part of her lifetime learning plan. Her experience in tribunal and court settings as well as conferences has been rewarding but she finds that her true passion is in dealing with people in the community interpreting arena.

The hands-on nature of community interpreting and its wide range of subject matter draws on her skillset every time. The challenge is fulfilling and the genuine gratitude from clients is rewarding.

Her goal is to bring a better appreciation of community interpreters to the field. Highlighting the wide range of lives that community interpreters touch and emphasizing the importance of how their exceptional work is required in the larger scheme of things is the key to bringing community interpreters into the spotlight. With the added recognition will come the requisite continuous learning and improvement and that can only help interpreters, clients, and everyone else involved.

Adam Kabir Dickinson

Secretary

secretary@atio.on.ca

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Adam Kabir Dickinson began his multilingual career in the nonprofit sector in Central America and the Caribbean, working in communications for conservation and restoration projects as well as carrying out research into sustainable agriculture. He got his start in the language field at a translation agency in Costa Rica, which later led to an active career as a freelance translator working from Spanish, Portuguese, German, and French into English. As the Director of Foreign Languages, Adam is delighted to help promote the diversity of languages present within the Association.

Saeid Hasani

Director, Translators, Director, Medical Interpreters

translators@atio.on.ca

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Marielle Godbout

Vice-President

vicepresident@atio.on.ca

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Marielle Godbout has been a Certified Translator (FR-EN) since 2004. Committed to the advancement of the translation profession through academic research, she has presented at international conferences, including FIT, since 2005. Her main research interests are the translation profession and professionalization as well as Canada’s official languages, especially within the context of minority communities. In her MA thesis, Translation in Canada: Occupation or Profession?, she investigated the status of translation as a profession.

She is currently working on her Ph.D. in Translation Studies at the University of Ottawa, where she is exploring professional identity formation and Canadian translators. A freelance translator, Marielle has worked for public, private and not-for-profit sector clients and is currently on contract with one of Canada’s largest unions.

She is also the English-language editor of two books, Mykonos, Theoklitos Triantafyllidis (1908-1977) – pictures, people & places (1920-1976) published in Greece in 2007 and Church of the Annunciation in Alexandria: Renovation & Restoration 2002-2004 published in 2010. An elected school trustee on the Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario since 1998, Marielle served on the Board of Directors of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association for ten years and was a union local executive for three years. She has extensive experience in public administration, especially financial authorities.

Caroline Napier

Director, Conference Interpreters

conferenceinterpreters@atio.on.ca

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Caroline Napier is a certified conference interpreter with over 30 years of experience in the field. Now based in Toronto, she grew up in Quebec City. Her passion as a communicator led her first to translation, which she studied at the University of Toronto, and later to interpretation. She was accredited as a conference interpreter with the Translation Bureau, Government of Canada, in 1999. She is also a member of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC).

Paulina Baez

Director, Foreign Languages

foreignlanguages@atio.on.ca

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Paulina Baez is a conference interpreter with over 12 years experience in the field. She provides project management and consultancy services for multilingual conferences, including corporate meetings, diplomatic delegations, and virtual conferences. Paulina’s expertise spans both public and private sectors, ensuring seamless interpretation services across various domains.

Accredited by the Translation Bureau, Government of Canada, in 2017, Paulina is also an active member of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC). She is part of a broad network of foreign language interpreters in Canada and internationally.

Paulina is particularly passionate about increasing the visibility of the interpreting profession, advocating for improved working conditions, and supporting mentoring and professional development initiatives within the field.

Pasquale (Pat) Capo

Treasurer

treasurer@atio.on.ca

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Pasquale (Pat) Capo has worked as a translator and interpreter for over 20 years, specializing in Italian/English and southern Italian dialects. Pat grew up in Sicily, immigrating to Canada as a young man when an earthquake interrupted his studies at the University of Palermo. He then completed his B.A. at the University of Toronto. Pat is also qualified as an accountant. Decades of professional experience in both the private and public sectors have enhanced his ability to provide interpreting and translation services, particularly of a business and legal nature, through his personal company Ital-Comm. Pat is also an avid soccer player and traveller.

Renée Xu

Director, Court Interpreters

courtinterpreters@atio.on.ca

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Renée Xu has amassed a decade of experience in the field of interpretation. She has accumulated a diverse portfolio of work experience providing interpretation services in Mandarin and Cantonese in a variety of settings, primarily in the legal and medical fields, due to her extensive professional background. Her performance as a medical interpreter for the preeminent surgeons in the world is unwaveringly outstanding. Her proficiency with intricate terminology and situations, meticulous attention to detail, and problem-solving prowess enable her to guarantee precision and discretion in any interpreting circumstance.

Dedicated to maintaining professional standards, Renée’s commitment extends well beyond the realm of her interpretation duties. Actively contributing to the enhancement of interpretation standards, she accomplishes this through her steadfast dedication to confronting industry challenges and advocating for optimal methodologies. Her contributions significantly elevate the standard of interpreting services while advancing the principles of fairness and equality. Her initiatives facilitate improved outcomes for communities and individuals by bridging communication gaps.

Josie Parisi

Director, Community Interpreters, Director, Terminologists

communityinterpreters@atio.on.ca

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Josie Parisi has over 8 years of experience as a translator. She speaks English, Spanish, French and Sicilian. Growing up in a multicultural household, she quickly became enamoured by the idea of being able to communicate the same idea in a different language. This fascination led her to pursue studies in French and Spanish followed by a second Bachelor of Arts in Translation. Throughout the years, she held administrative positions in local companies in the educational and language sectors.

Josie strives to establish pleasant relationships with those who cross her path and loves to travel and discover new places.

Foreign Languages

On the ATIO Board of Directors, most directors represent the professional category to which they belong: Translators, Conference, Court, Medical and Community Interpreters, as well as Terminologists.

In addition, there is a director position that represents professionals who work in foreign languages; that is languages that are not Canada’s two official languages, English and French. Although “Foreign Languages” is not a professional category in which a person can become a candidate for certification or become certified, it includes all professional categories, and having a specific voice on the Board representing those professionals is of great value to the ATIO Board and ATIO professionals.

The position was created at a time when a majority of members worked essentially with Canada’s official languages, and ATIO felt that those working out of and into non-official languages also needed to have their voice represented more intentionally on the ATIO Board.

The mandate of the Director of Foreign Languages is to:

Represent the voice of Foreign Language translators and interpreters within ATIO
- By listening, responding, and becoming familiar with concerns and queries, and acting in accordance with the overall mission and vision of the Association.
Develop the membership
- By undertaking special projects, such as surveys, discussion sessions etc. to better understand the working conditions and trends in the industry, potentially establishing special committees for specific projects, and reporting to the Board of Directors of the progress therein.
Draft
- reports or articles for the Board of Directors and InformATIO.
Represent
- ATIO among groups, on social media, at conferences and meetings, raising awareness of the importance of using certified language professionals, and acting as liaison between ATIO and other groups, associations, Government, etc., who represent or use foreign language professionals.

Hence, if you are a Certified Member or a candidate for certification, in any language combination that includes a language other than French and English, in any of the professional categories, you are also represented by the Director of Foreign Languages.

We want to hear from you, discuss your working conditions and your concerns, the many advantages and privileges of being a certified member or a candidate for certification with ATIO, and we want to work together and develop this membership to achieve the highest quality standards and broadest recognition possible.