Professor; Program Head, Spanish Translation and Interpretation
With over 20 years experience as a Spanish translator and interpreter, Prof. Shulman-Mora has had the opportunity to work in many of the venues available in her language combination: State and Federal Court, U.S. Department of State, the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the Free Trade Area of the Americas, U.S.–Panama bilateral trade negotiations, and private conferences in the fields of business, hi-tech, education, government and law enforcement. The topics on which she has had to become “expert for a day” have ranged from tractors to bomb-sniffing dogs and from super-string theory to the harmonized system.
As a graduate of MIIS she has found that the professional contacts and friendships developed over the years have been invaluable. Since joining the regular faculty at the Institute, she has focused her energies on harnessing what she has learned over the years and attempting to synthesize both her successes and her failures into usable lessons for her students. In the classroom, she strives to create an environment where students feel empowered and equal. She wants them to understand that they are indeed capable of mastering the art and science of language and communication.
Prof. Shulman-Mora is currently focused on interpreter training programs in Spain and Latin America and is actively engaged in various curriculum design and assessment projects that seek to improve the quality of interpreter training throughout the Spanish-speaking world.
She is interested in bridging the gap between the classroom and the profession for Spanish Interpretation students and has designed and taught a number of practical training experiences for student interpreters. This pre-immersion in the professional workplace helps students gauge the distance between their academic work and market expectations and can helps develop lasting contacts that will serve them throughout their careers.
Professor Shulman-Mora has been teaching at the Institute since 2009.
| by Jason Warburg
Middlebury Institute students Andrew Belisle MACI ’23 and Leilani Padilla-Young MATI ’22 both recently passed the notoriously difficult Federal Court Interpreter Certification Examination, qualifying them to serve as interpreters in any federal courtroom.
| by Jason Warburg
Middlebury Institute Professor Leire Carbonell Aguero MACI ’03 called interpreting President Biden’s inaugural address “the highest honor” of her career. She was recruited into the role of lead Spanish interpreter for the Biden campaign by fellow alumna Maureen Sweeney MPA ’94.
