Board of Directors
President
Aldina Hanessian
Aldina Hanessian is a Spanish Certified Healthcare Interpreter, recently passing the CHI exam. Aldina graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelors in Spanish Literature and a Minor in Portuguese. After working for 5 years as a teacher, teacher aid and substitute teacher in Nogales and Tucson, she decided on changing careers. She began her interpreting career after going back to school and graduating from Pima Community College with an Associates in Translation and Interpretation in 2014. Since then she has worked at Cyracom International as an in house over the phone interpreter (OPI), and TransPerfect as a full time at home OPI.
Aldina currently works as a per diem Certified Medical Interpreter at Tucson Medical Center. She also works as a freelance interpreter from home as an OPI for MasterWord Services and Certified Languages International. She is also working on becoming a Certified Court Interpreter, working on her Arizona state court certification.
Vice President
Adriana De Dominicis
Experienced and certified bilingual medical interpreter, educational interpreter, community interpreter, conference, and immigration court interpreter, specializing in OPI, VRI, and on-site interpreting. Adriana's goal has always been to help her fellow human beings by making sure that their communication is complete and confidential. Her job has always been to make sure that there have been no errors nor mistakes in the interactions of the people that she is with. Adriana firmly believes in learning from others, so sharing her experience and knowledge is her way of giving back.
Treasurer
Militza Donaldson
Millie Donaldson works as a supervisor at The Emily Center, a pediatric health resource library located inside of Phoenix Children’s Hospital (PCH). One of her many roles is to provide consumer health information in Spanish. She searches for information in Spanish for families at a register level that is easy to understand. Before starting in this position, she worked for the Department of Language Services as a Spanish interpreter.
Millie obtained a Bachelor of Science in Health-Related Professions from the University of Florida. She is a graduate of the Introduction to Medical Interpreting course offered at Phoenix Children’s. She was chosen to participate in one of only 3 courses ever offered at the hospital for Train the Trainor. Upon completion of Train the Trainor, Millie became an instructor for the Introduction to Medical Interpreting course offered at the hospital. She has taught this course for over 13 years. She has a passion for teaching and for introducing students into the world of interpreting.
Millie is a national certified health interpreter obtaining her certification from the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI). Millie has held many positions on the ATI board. She started out as Member-at-Large before becoming Treasurer. She served 2 terms as Treasurer before being elected to the position of Vice-President. Recently she joined the ATI board in the capacity of Member At-Large and then Interim Vice-President.
Member at Large
Iman Ali
Iman Ali is a professional Medical Interpreter with the Certification Commission for Healthcare (CoreCHI). She came to the United States as a refugee from Somalia in 1996 and had the opportunity of attending high school and college in the United States.
She began her career as an interpreter in 2010, after moving from California to Arizona with her husband and three children. As a refugee herself, Iman is passionate about helping her community. She is proud to be serving Arabic and Somali speaking refugees in the Valley, who possess limited knowledge of the English language.
Member at Large
Saharai Trejo
Saharai is a Certified Healthcare Interpreter™ with the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI) and has expertise in worker's compensation.
Prior to pursuing interpretation, Mrs. Trejo worked as a Bilingual Family Support Specialist at Southwest Human Development within the Early Head Start Program (serving pregnant, infant, and toddler patients). While working with a high LEP population, Mrs. Trejo realized the need and importance of having qualified professional interpreters in the community. She encountered cases where incompetent interpreting services significantly delayed the appropriate medical care for those she served.
Mrs. Trejo completed her training in Medical Interpretation (Spanish) at Estrella Mountain Community College. She successfully met the requirements to interpret in a professional manner according to the national standards of practice for interpreters in health care.
She completed her externship at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center (a level-one trauma center and one of the top 25 neurology and neurosurgery hospitals in the United States) located in Phoenix, Arizona. During her externship, Mrs. Trejo demonstrated her command of advanced interpretation techniques in a rich variety of clinical settings and helped medical providers communicate with their patients effectively and also acted as a cultural mediator when necessary.
Immediate Past President
Francesca Samuel
A la Carte Translations
Francesca Samuel is a freelance interpreter and translator based in Tucson, Arizona. She founded A la Carte Translations in 1999, a web-based translation business.
Currently, she is president of Arizona Translators and Interpreters, Inc., a non-profit organization that offers professional development to T&I professionals in Arizona. She is also member of the board of directors and treasurer of the National Association of Judiciary Intrerpreters and Translators (NAJIT), and is a former administrator of the American Translators Association Spanish Language Division of the (ATA SPD 2012-2016).
She has 25 years of experience in the profession and has presented at annual conferences for the Federation Internationale de Traducteur (FIT), the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT), the California Federation of Interpreters (CFI), the American Translators Association (ATA) and the Arizona Translatord & Interpreters Assoc. (ATI). She is a member of the NAJIT, ATA, ATI, BBB, and WOSBA.
A native of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, she lived in New York City and Los Angeles before settling down in Tucson, AZ, where she lives with her husband.
