AAPTI committees   

Michèle Stevens 

Michèle is a conference interpreter with many years of experience interpreting for high-level meetings all over the world. She has worked for international organizations such as United Nations, the Organization of American States, the International Olympic Committee, FIFA, Interpol, DEA, Amnesty International and the Federal Government of Canada, to mention just a few. Over the years she has had the honor of interpreting for many Heads of State and Government, from Presidents and Prime Ministers to Kings and Princes.

Michèle is a long-time member of the prestigious International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC) and is certified by the State of California and by the United States District Courts. She has interpreted for thousands of criminal and civil cases at the state, federal and international level. She has also been a continuing education instructor for fellow interpreters since 2011.

Irish-American on her father’s side and Mexican on her mother’s side, Michèle describes herself as a “Leprecana”, half Leprechaun and half Mexicana. She was born in Mexico City but raised in Southern California in a bilingual family. Michèle received a full scholarship to attend the renowned El Colegio de México (Colmex) for her graduate studies in translation. In sum, she has spent roughly half of her life in each of her two native countries, which makes her truly and uniquely bicultural and absolutely ambilingual. Michèle also speaks and interprets Portuguese.

Julie Drucker 

Julie is a completely trilingual and tricultural, State and Federal certified interpreter. Her working languages are Spanish and French.  She is certified by U.S. District Courts and the State of California and accredited by the American Translators Association. She has been providing interpreter services in English, Spanish and French for over 25 years. Julie earned a Baccalauréat from the French Lycée in Caracas, and Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree simultaneously, Summa Cum Laude, from UCLA in Latin American Studies in 2001.

Over the years, Julie has worked in a broad array of settings, ranging from international conferences, to town hall meetings, to political asylum cases.  She has specialized in the legal industry working for both the prosecution and the defense in high profile, death-penalty cases. Julie has testified as an expert witness in state and federal trials regarding substantive issues of translation and has been contracted by independent law firms to analyze language-related disputes. 

For six years, Julie taught at UCLA’s prestigious Interpretation and Translation Program, of which she is an alumna, where she designed and taught two college level courses for aspiring interpreters and ran mock-exams to prepare candidates for the challenging State and Federal Interpreter examinations.

In 2016, Julie and her business partner, Michele Stevens, founded a language service agency, The Court Interpreters, providing interpreters in most languages in the legal field.  At The Court Interpreters, Julie and Michele design and teach continuing education courses for interpreters of all languages around the country, covering relevant topics applicable to interpreters’ day to day work, ranging from social media for interpreters, to remote interpretation to courses on ethics.

As an advocate for the profession, in 2011, Julie was invited to serve on the Court Interpreter Advisory Panel to the Judicial Council of California and has since been actively involved in the betterment of working interpreter conditions in the courts. Upon the introduction of AB5, Julie was actively involved in the successful passing of AB2257 that exempts professional interpreters from the requirements of AB5.

Born in England to British parents, raised in Caracas, Venezuela and attending a French Lycée, Julie spent her first 24 years before coming to the USA in a completely trilingual and tricultural environment.