AAPTI board of directors 
Angie Birchfield, President and Legislative Committee Chair
In 2003 Angie learned that some individuals were unlawfully taking other people’s certification number and names from the Judicial Council’s public database of certified interpreters and fraudulently pretended to be certified in legal proceedings, including depositions. As a result, she addressed this issue before the Judicial Council and requested that our certification numbers be removed from the public database. She also requested a requirement that interpreters needed to state their appearances and their certification number at the beginning of every event. The numbers were eventually removed from the database, but the certification confirmation was not enforced.
In 2013 she became the Freelance Unit chair for TTIG - The Translators and Interpreters Guild, a unit of the CWA/TNG union. Angie and her TTIG co-chair were successful in changing its name to the Interpreters Guild of America after realizing that ours was a national plight in the profession. In 2016, she was appointed to the Language Access Task Force, VRI Committee and Pilot Project, the LAP Budget Committee, and the LAP Technological Solutions Committee, representing independent contractors. She brought to the table her years of experience, and that of her many colleagues as independent contractors in the courts and in the private sector.
IGA along with the assistance of the union lobbyist, advocated successfully for the recognition of our certification. We achieved this goal through Assembly Bill 2370 where we are required to place our certification number on the record each time we interpreted at a legal proceeding, in or out of court. Although this was meant for Civil, Medical, and Workers Compensation matters, it was also implemented in Criminal court. This was by far one of her greatest achievements for the profession.
Following that success, she travelled to Sacramento advocating for interpreters working in the Workers Compensation and medical interpreting areas. She assisted Senator Mendoza in the language for SB1160 in an effort to protect interpreters in the workers compensation arena.
She worked with other stakeholders to make sure that the certification requirement was not removed from Small Claims matters through SB 1150 Hueso, and finally SB2257 which began as SB900 which was a result of AB5.
In 2019 the private sector interpreters faced a challenge of the language and implementation of AB5. It was clear to her that in order to preserve the integrity of the profession in the private sector, she needed to find a way to represent the independent language professionals so that they would not be affected with by some of the strict requirements. She fought hard along with colleagues Michele Stevens, Julie Drucker, and Ttzol Lopez, to convince the union to support them, to no avail. She felt compelled to resign from her position as Unit Chair due to the lack of support in defending freelancers from the unintended consequences of AB5.
This was an unprecedented effort and by far the most difficult of obstacles to overcome. Yet, Angie and her colleagues worked diligently to convince the legislators in Sacramento to hear them out, and they were successful. After going through months of fighting and prevailing, it became apparent that the language profession had arrived! As a result, it was clear that we need constant representation at the legislative level so we will never be overlooked again.
She is proud to be a part of the AAPTI group. She strongly believes that AAPTI shares the same commitment and values to represent our profession, and to protect the communities we serve by assuring that they have access to competent and professional language services. She hopes that you will join AAPTI and commit to travel down this road together!
Contact Angie Birchfield
Giovana Farias-Izmirlian, Treasurer
As a California State Certified Court interpreter since 2013, Giovana has extensive experience as a licensed professional. Her previous experience includes over 10 years in the private sector in the banking and mutual fund industry where she conducted business in English and Spanish. Additionally, her education includes a Bachelor of Arts in International Business with a concentration in Spanish and two years of MBA coursework from Cal State Fullerton. Ms. Farias-Izmirlian completed the Court Interpreting Program at Southern California School of Interpretation and continuously completes additional coursework to challenge herself and further enhance her skills.
Giovana works primarily in legal proceedings which includes civil and administrative matters. Additionally, she works with clients who require her services to provide their staff medical/retirement plan enrollment information and company updates. Most recently, she provides interpretation services during conferences, community and estate planning meetings.Ms. Farias-Izmirlian is a also proud member of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT) and the Association of Independent Judiciary Interpreters of California (AIJIC). She is committed to serving others via her vocation and helping her fellow colleagues in the advancement and recognition of the profession.
Contact Giovana Farias-Izmirlian
Julia Elizarraraz, Secretary
Julia Elizarraraz is a freelance certified Spanish interpreter and has been court certified for the state of California since 2011. She completed the court interpretation program at Southern California School of Interpretation in Santa Fe Springs, CA, in 2008. Prior to this she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Spanish with Departmental Honors from the University of Southern California in 2007. Her honors thesis was written on the importance of linguistic and cultural sensitivity while interpreting in a medical setting. Her research for this thesis was conducted while volunteering in a number of departments at Keck Hospital of USC (then known as USC University Hospital). Julia subsequently completed First Year Law at Purdue University Global, having studied Criminal Law, Contracts, Torts, and Legal Analysis.
As many interpreters and translators do, Julia became interested in the profession when she found herself interpreting and translating for her immigrant parents from a young age. As a teenager, Julia was preparing contracts and legal correspondence in both English and Spanish for her family and community, and by age 14, she was interpreting for her parents in civil court. Her first trial interpretation was for her parents as self-represented plaintiffs, and this is where she discovered her love and talent for simultaneous interpretation. She considers one of her greatest professional moments to be when she was the trial interpreter in a wrongful death case where the jury pool was considered to be hostile toward the Spanish-speaking plaintiffs. After interpreting their testimony on the witness stand, the jury rendered a verdict awarding them $30 million.
Julia is a proud member of AAPTI since it made its public debut in February 2020 and as of the time of this writing, has served on AAPTI’s Membership Committee as Chair since the committee’s inception in April 2021. She has been a member of the Legislative Committee since August 2021. Now, in her capacity as Secretary, she looks forward to collaborating with every member of AAPTI, other colleagues and students of the profession, and the communities we all serve.
Madeline Rios, Director of Community Engagement
Madeline Rios has been a freelance interpreter and translator since 1983. She holds a certificate in translation and interpretation from the University of California at Los Angeles, a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Clark University, and a Master of Arts in Spanish Translation and Interpreting from the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley. Ms. Ríos is a life, voting, Spanish to English translator certified by the American Translators Association.
She is a member of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators and the Association of Independent Judicial Interpreters of California. She is certified as a Spanish/English court interpreter by the Judicial Council of California and the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.
Ms. Ríos has worked as a translation instructor with the University of California at Fullerton, and has made numerous presentations, published papers, contributed to bilingual dictionaries, and offered training through the Judicial Council of California and professional organizations in the U.S. and Mexico. Her pro bono work includes interpreting for asylum cases and organizing interpreting teams for indigenous consultant organizations at the United Nations, for investigation of the zero-tolerance immigration policy, for the Pomona Habla coalition of Pomona, California, and for the Latino/Latina Roundtable of the San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys, where she serves on its board of directors. She is the former director of the Guatemalan Education Action Project and was the editor of its Guatemala Review publications. Since 1986 she has also interpreted pro bono for the U.S. Southwest regional tours of Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum.
Mary Lee Behar, Member at Large |