About our team

Dubravka Martincic is a Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian medical and legal interpreter and a translator of personal legal documents. She holds certifications by DSHS and WA State Courts as well as an MA in Teaching English and German Languages and Literature from Croatia. Dubravka’s interpreting career began in Nashville, Tennessee, at Vanderbilt University Hospital, when she was asked to assist with interpreting for Bosnian refugees. Around that time the war in Bosnia brought an influx of refugees to Kentucky and Tennessee, putting interpreting services in high demand. At the same time, a couple of professional, federally certified interpreters started an association called TAPIT (the Tennessee Association of Professional Interpreters and Translators). Dubravka worked closely with the founders of TAPIT, learning invaluable skills, building her freelancing business, and eventually serving as the Association’s president from 2005-2006. In 2006, she moved to Washington State, where she currently lives and works. Dubravka is an avid gardener, cook, and yogini.

Elizabeth Adams is an ATA-certified Russian to English translator and transcriber with over 25 years in the industry. She earned a B.A. in Russian Studies from The College of William and Mary and moved to Moscow, where she worked as a freelance translator and editor for clients in business and the arts. When she moved back to the Seattle area in 2010, she began to focus on legal translation and forensic transcription work. Elizabeth appreciates the excellent local professional development opportunities NOTIS provides and looks forward to giving back to the organization as a board member.

Svetlana Kupriyanova graduated from Novgorod State University (Russia) in 1997 with an MA in Linguistics. She is a certified court, medical, and social services interpreter, as well as an ATA-certified translator, with over 20 years of experience interpreting in medical, legal, business, and social service settings across various countries. Svetlana also teaches Russian language classes at her local community college in Mount Vernon, WA. She is passionate about language and interpreting, and, during her time on the NOTIS Board of Directors, she hopes to utilize her experience of working in different settings and in different countries to help secure more opportunities, recognition, job security, and appreciation for her fellow language professionals.

Cristina Moldovan do Amaral, originally from Transylvania, Romania, is a translator and interpreter with over 30 years of experience across Europe and the United States. She works with English, German, and Romanian, specializing in legal, immigration, medical, technical, and governmental fields and serving both public institutions and private clients. Cristina holds a degree in Translating and Interpreting from the University of Bucharest and is certified by the Romanian Ministry of Justice. She also studied T&I and Persian on a scholarship at the University of Vienna, Austria. She moved to the United States almost 25 years ago and is a registered court interpreter in Washington, Arizona, and Wyoming. An active member of NOTIS, ATA, NAJIT, and ACIA, Cristina is a passionate advocate for professional standards and access to qualified language services in the legal field.

Gauri Shringarpure has studied widely, earning an M.A. in German Literature from the University of Pune, India, and a Master's in Intercultural Communication from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She has freelanced as a translator/interpreter, subtitler, and content creator for over twenty years, and has been in project management in the Linguistic Validation space for regulated industries for a little over a decade. Gauri speaks English, Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati, German, and Konkani, and knows very basic Spanish and French. She has taught German at UMBC and as a private instructor, has been active as a writer and promoter of culture in several South Asian nonprofits in the Seattle area, and plays the keyboard in some local South Asian bands. She is also on the board of SCARF (Socially Conscious Artists Foundation), a nonprofit that strives to bring meaningful art to the stage. Gauri loves bringing cultures and people together and is always up for conversations over food and ginger chai. She feels the Pacific Northwest is a blessing that most PNWers (including herself) take for granted, and she calls it home along with her husband, two grown boys, and two dogs.

Office Manager  
Program Administrator 

Naomi Uchida is the Office Manager and Program Administrator at NOTIS, where she helps ensure that workshops, events, and daily operations run smoothly for members and presenters. Originally from Japan, she brings years of administrative and management experience from her work in the U.S. She is a graduate of Bellevue College and completed the Translation and Interpretation Certificate Programs at the Translation & Interpretation Institute in Bellevue, Washington. After realizing that interpreting wasn’t her true path, she decided to dedicate her skills to supporting interpreters instead—helping them succeed through well-organized programs and member services. She has also worked as a freelance English-to-Japanese translator. Outside of work, she enjoys decluttering, early-morning jogging, and quiet moments in nature—taking time to breathe, reflect, and appreciate the simple joys of everyday life..

Marketing & Publications

Brianna Salinas is a lifelong student of language and literature. She grew up between Washington State and Arizona and later lived and studied abroad in both Germany and Spain. In Spain, she found community with other artists and linguists and began taking on translation projects — immediately cultivating a love for the act and the art of the matter. She has a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Hispanic Literary Studies, both from the University of Washington, and a second M.A. in Literary Translation from Universidad Complutense de Madrid. To date, Brianna has translated a selection of sonnets by the Argentine poet Alfonsina Storni (Spanish > English) and a book of migration poetry by Ricardo Ruiz (English > Spanish). She is currently translating the early poetry of C.D. Wright into Spanish. When away from her tiny desk, Brianna enjoys taking the slow train northward, exploring abandoned spaces, shooting film, and spending time at the river watching her puppy track birds.

Video Assistant

Juan Pablo Piedrahita was born in Medellín, Colombia and moved to Seattle in 1999. This experience and his constant connection with these two cultures gives him a unique experience that is both bilingual and bicultural, and it's connected to an expanding cultural and linguistic worldview thanks to his love of travel. In Seattle he attended college to earn his first degree in Audio Production, and in 2009 following a career in tech which unexpectedly ended up focusing on localization, he went back to school to hone his writing and language skills by taking Creative Writing and Advanced Translation courses. This has all coincided with a nine-year career in language interpreting along with translation from English-to-Spanish and Spanish-to-English since 2019. Juan Pablo is an advocate for immigrant rights and provides volunteer interpreting and translation work for The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and the King County Bar Association. When he's not behind a computer clacking away, he's making ambient music in front of another screen, going on rock climbing and camping trips, and attending local cultural events.

Video Assistant

Amine El Fajri is a Court and Medical Certified Arabic/French Interpreter, translator, and instructor. He has over 15 years of experience specializing in law, medical interpreting, and translation. He is also the owner of Utah International Services, a company that provides accurate training for certified and aspiring court and medical interpreters. In addition to the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters (NAJIT), he is a voting member in the American Translators Association (ATA) and a board member of the Utah Translators and Interpreters Association (UTIA).

Video Assistant

Yuka Matsudaira is a Japanese Language Conference Interpreter, Washington State Court Registered Japanese Interpreter, and an English to Japanese Translator. She holds a Master’s Degree in Conference Interpretation from the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California. Yuka was born and raised in Japan, where she worked as an in-house and freelance interpreter/translator for many businesses—including IT companies, law firms, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and TV stations. After moving to Seattle in 2002, Yuka has been interpreting and translating for more diversified clientele. Her current specialties include law, IT, marketing, engineering, energy, education, entertainment, and more. As a Washington State Court Interpreter, she interprets for local courts and law firms on a regular basis.