Dr Meredith Bartlett

Meredith first had contact with the Deaf community as a teacher of the deaf at VCD in the 70s. She was one of the first freelance interpreters in Victoria in 1981 and has been a committee member of ASLIA Vic since its formation as AVID in 1986 (including being President for 10 years). Meredith worked as a Welfare Worker for the Deaf for 7 years, and then as an interpreter in educational and community settings. She gained her MA in Applied Linguistics from Monash University in 2000, and her PhD in Linguistics at Melbourne University in 2010. She is currently involved in researching Tactile Auslan at Monash University in order to improve interpreter training.

Sandra Leane

Sandra has been a founding member of the sign language association in Victoria since it started in 1986 as AVID. Originally a teacher of the Deaf, Sandra (or Sandi as she is mostly known) has always lived and worked in Melbourne. She was accredited by NAATI as an Auslan/English interpreter in 1990 and has worked as an interpreter trainer and practitioner for many years. She has served as an ASLIA Executive Committee member, and as Vice President and President of ASLIA Vic. A proud and passionate ASLIA member.

Professor Jemina Napier

Jemina Napier has practiced as an interpreter since 1988. She works between English and BSL, Auslan or International Sign. She first arrived in Australia from the UK in 1998 to do her PhD at Macquarie University. She then set up the PG Diploma/MA in Auslan/English Interpreting at Macquarie, supervised MA & PhD students, and regularly provided professional development workshops. Jemina served on the ASLIA (National) board from 2002-2009 (Vice-President 2005-2007, President 2007-2009). In January 2013 she returned to the UK to take up the position of Professor of Intercultural Communication at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.

Robyn Tsapazi

Robyn Tsapazi has been involved in ASLIA since gaining her NAATI Accreditation in 1993. In the subsequent years filling the roles of Committee Member, Secretary, Vice President and President of the WA branch and a member of the ASLIA National Representative Council, DI subcommittee and ANC committees she has seen our fledgling organisation blossom into a robust exciting profession that offers much to its members. Being a part of the evolution of ASLIA, she has been fortunate to have met and worked alongside friends and colleagues whom she counts as pillars and champions of the interpreting profession.

Teresa Cumpston Bird

Teresa became an ASLIA Honorary Life Member in 2003, recognising the important role that she had played in the inception and establishment of ASLIA Vic in the 1980s. Teresa has held many positions in various organisations in the Deaf Community including a 5 year stint on the ASLIA Executive Committee as Treasurer and Secretary.

Dr Karen Bontempo

Dr Karen Bontempo has over 26 years experience as an Auslan / English interpreter and has worked as an interpreter educator since 1996. Her academic qualifications span the disciplines of psychology, linguistics and education. Karen holds a PhD from Macquarie University, where she is an Honorary Associate of the Linguistics Dept and teaches on the postgraduate interpreting program. She also teaches at a local Deaf school in WA, and is a part time lecturer in the interpreting program at the Central Institute of Technology. Karen is the national chairperson of the ASLIA Interpreter Trainers’ Network; serves on the NAATI Qualifications and Assessment Advisory Committee; is a previous President and committee member of ASLIA at both national and at state level; and she has published several journal articles and book chapters regarding her research interests in aptitude for interpreting, evaluation of interpreter performance, mentoring, and interpreting pedagogy.

John Flynn

John began his life-long service to Deaf people as a Welfare Officer with the Adult Deaf & Dumb Society of NSW (now The Deaf Society of NSW) in 1950. He had no knowledge of Sign Language therefore lived in Gordon Davis House Stanmore, the Deaf Young people’s Hostel to learn. In 1956, as there was no formal training for Welfare Workers with Deaf people in Australia, he travelled to Britain and obtained the Diploma of Deaf Welfare. In 1960 he was appointed Superintendent/Secretary of the South Australian Deaf Society. In 1967 he was back to NSW as Senior Executive Officer of the Adult Deaf Society there. In 1968 he was appointed to the new position of Executive Director and Secretary of the Adult Deaf Society of Victoria. He retired from that position in 1993 after 25 years. He was active in the Australian Association of Welfare Workers with the Deaf and the Australian Federation of Deaf Societies, being Secretary of the Federation on ten occasions. During that time he advocated for Sign Language Interpreter training and when the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) was established to accredit Interpreters for people for whom English was a second language, he persuaded the Authority to include Australian Sign language in their testing programme. John was appointed to the NAATI Board and wrote and conducted the first testing programme. He has been a strong friend of ASLIA Vic and ASLIA National in their early years, through practical office support and meeting facilities. In 1984 he wrote No Longer by Gaslight The First 100 Years of the Adult Deaf Society of Victoria, then in 2000 La Trobe University admitted him to the Degree of Master of Arts for researching Some Aspects of the Development of Post School Organisations of and for Deaf People in Australia. In May 1996 he delivered the first J.W.Flynn Oration in Hobart at the National Conferences. The Oration was named in recognition of John’s pioneering work in the field of Auslan/English interpreting in Australia. Although retired from administering organisations for Deaf people, John still interprets in Auslan from time to time.

John Levitzke

John, through his family, had a life-long involvement with the Deaf Community. He was Executive Director of the WA Deaf Society from 1978 until his retirement in 2008. He was also Secretary/Treasurer of the Australian Federation of Deaf Societies from 1988-93 and again 2002-05. John was also a board member of the following organisations: Australian Deafness Council WA (13 years); WA School for Deaf Children (7 years); WA DeafBlind Association (5 years); ACROD WA (3 years).

The importance of interpreting has always been held in the highest possible regard by John. Accordingly with the recognition of sign language interpreters by NAATI the need for an interpreters course to be established was essential. John was a member of the planning committee which led to the Perth TAFE interpreters course commencing in 1986. John also ensured the WA Deaf Society established an interpreting section separate from the community services area. The need to create a professional association for interpreters was a necessity. John through his position was deeply committed to providing every possible support and encouragement to the inception and formation of ASLIA WA.

Leanne Potter

Leanne Potter began her career in mainstream education but transferred to Deaf education after 6 years. She started at Mosman Park School for Deaf Children, followed by a stint at Swanbourne SHS, ending up in charge of the Deaf Centre. During that time she also taught English to Deaf adults in a continuing education program, and began a 22 year stretch as a Board Member of the WA Deaf Society. She qualified as an NAATI paraprofessional Auslan/English interpreter and taught on the Auslan interpreters’ course for 8 years. Concurrently Leanne completed a number of years as a Visiting Teacher for the Deaf in the western suburbs, also working in the Catholic and private sectors. During that time Leanne gained her Masters in Education and worked for twelve years part time on the Teacher of the Deaf program, training teachers to become Teachers of the Deaf. She was made a fellow of the University of Melbourne for this work. Leanne established the Access and Equity area at WAIDE in 2007, holding chief responsibility for the oversight of educational interpreters state-wide. She published a journal article on the efficacy of educational interpreters in WA and is well regarded for her knowledge and expertise in this area. She rates taking a group of Deaf students to Scotland, and delivering research papers in Canada and on the east coast of Australia as highlights of her career. In 2013, Leanne became Principal of Shenton College in Perth.

Steve Robinson

Merie Spring

Merie gained her NAATI Auslan/English Level II accreditation in 1986 and her NAATI Auslan/English Level III accreditation in 1988. In 1986, Merie began her interpreting career officially working as an educational interpreter at Griffith University (then known as Brisbane College of Advanced Education) and doing casual community interpreting in Queensland and other states as required.

From 1988 Merie worked for the Queensland Deaf Society (now known as Deaf Services Queensland) initially as a staff interpreter and then as Manager of Interpreting Services until 2002, when she left to establish her own business – Sign Language Services Queensland and later Sign Language Services Australia.

During her 30 years of professional practice, Merie has interpreted in all settings – births, community, conferences, court, festivals, government (all three levels), education, employment, funerals, health, legal, medical, mental health, sports events, theatre, television and weddings, amongst others. Merie has also worked as a conference interpreter at local, state, national and international level.

(During) In the course of her 14 years at the Queensland Deaf Society, Merie worked tirelessly to provide training opportunities for fledgling interpreters throughout the state to upgrade their skills to a level of competence whereby they could gain their NAATI accreditation.

As a highly experienced interpreter trainer, Merie has worked at Southbank Institute of TAFE (SBIT) in the Diploma of Interpreting program, and was employed  (at)  by the National Auslan Interpreter Booking and Payment Service (NABS) Wesley Mission Brisbane, to develop and deliver the first national Diploma of Interpreting program for interpreters living in regional and remote areas of Australia.

Merie has held continuous ASLIA membership for over 25 years at both state and national levels. It should be noted that Merie’s willingness to share her interpreting skills and knowledge, and deliver interpreter training is well-known throughout the country. Many interpreters and members of the Deaf community know of Merie’s generosity, empathy, professionalism, community spirit, and unwavering commitment to ASLIA.

Peter Bonser

Peter Bonser has dedicated his working life to interpreting and the Deaf community. Peter, a bi-lingual Auslan/English native speaker, was born into a Deaf-parented family and has interpreted throughout his personal and professional life to this day.

In the early 1980s prior to NAATI accreditation and ASLIA being established, Peter was employed as a Welfare Worker at the Deaf Society of New South Wales, where he led the local move to separate the role of Interpreter from that of a Welfare Worker. Peter gained NAATI accreditation in 1983. At the 1983 National Deafness Conference in Sydney, Peter called a meeting of interested persons to discuss the separation of the two roles. This separation occurred for staff of the Deaf Society of New South Wales in Sydney in 1984.

Peter moved to Melbourne to work at the Victorian Deaf Society in 1985, where he took up the combined role of Welfare Worker/Interpreter. Peter worked with other like-minded interested people (both Deaf and Hearing) towards the establishment of a support organisation for Victorian Deaf Society staff and community members who were involved in interpreting with Deaf people. This support organisation went on to become ‘ASLIA’ and the rest, as they say, is history.

Peter has held continuous ASLIA membership for 30 years at both state and national levels.

Della Bampton

Della Bampton
Della has been an Auslan Interpreter before it was a recognised profession, and was one of the first freelance interpreters hired by the Deaf Society over 30 years ago.

She has attempted to retire 3 times in the past few years, but she continues to return to serve the community that she loves. Della is a mentor and role model for newer interpreters.

Della was involved in an early group of interpreters that would meet to practice their skills and discuss the emerging profession of interpreting. From this group, emerged the foundation of the Diploma of Interpreting as well as the Interpreters Forum, which would later be known as ASLIA NSW.

Della has been involved on the ASLIA NSW committee for many of the last 30 years, including serving as Treasurer for 15 years. Throughout this time, Della has organised countless professional development opportunities, Auslan Only weekends and social events. She was recognised with a ASLIA NSW Lifetime Achievement award in 2013.

Della continues to serve the community through her work, support of ASLIA NSW and involvement in the education and training of future interpreters. She has also recently been appointed as the NSW representative to the ASLIA National Board.

Della Goswell

Della Goswell
Della is well known as an interpreter, interpreter educator and researcher. Della holds a Master of Adult Education, Master of Translation & Interpreting and is currently enrolled as a PhD student in Linguistics at Macquarie University. Della has been the coordinator of the Auslan-English Interpreting program at Macquarie University since 2008. She has been on the NAATI Assessor panel for more than 10 years and is currently co-convenor of the NAATI Auslan Panel.

Among other activities, Della has contributed to the development of Auslan-English interpreting in Australia through the PD she presents and the research she undertakes and disseminates academically and to practitioners.

Della co-authored the first (and currently only) Australia textbook on Sign Language Interpreting (Sign language interpreting: theory and practice. Napier, J., Mckee, R. L. & Goswell, D., 2018, 3ed Leichhardt, NSW: Federation Press.), which is used as a resource both nationally and internationally.

Internationally, Della has contributed to the development of interpreting in developing countries in the Oceania regions, with the most recent stint being in Fiji.

Della has been an active member of ASLIA NSW since its inception 30 years ago and served on various state and national boards and committees for over 10 years.

Paul Heuston

Paul Heuston
Paul, like many Codas, has been called on as an interpreter his whole life. He has been longstanding member of ASLIA, volunteering whenever the state branches (both NSW and Vic) called on him for assistance.

From 2009 to 2014, Paul Heuston served on the ASLIA Executive, 3 of years as President. He devoted countless hours volunteering his time, guiding ASLIA in establishing a number of benchmarks, and achieving great outcomes for the profession.

Paul oversaw the organisation of ANC2012, 2013 and 2014, worked to grow ASLIA’s membership base, lobbied NAATI for the recognition of Deaf Interpreters, coordinated ASLIA’s 21^st Birthday celebrations, managed the productions of the ASLIA’s 25^th Anniversary booklet, wrote countless submissions, established several subcommittees to support the work of ASLIA, and spent many hours meeting with stakeholders. This is but a small portion of the work that Paul contributed in this time.

A major achievement of Paul’s was the establishment of the ASLIA e-update. An online publication that brought ASLIA into the 21^st century in communicating with its membership base. It replaced the costly printed production Across the Board and was sent monthly (11 times per year) to the members, becoming a much-treasured read. Paul devoted countless hours over the seven years that the e-update was in circulation and the contribution that the publication has made to the interpreting profession should not be underestimated.

Kathy Wright

Kathy Wright
Kathy joined the interpreting landscape over 30 years ago,  firstly as a mother of a Deaf child and then as an educational interpreter for many years before entering advocacy for the improvement on the needs of Deaf individuals and working with ASLIA NSW. Her work has varied far and wide ever since.

Kathy has given over 20 years of service to the ASLIA NSW committee as Treasurer, Vice President and committee member. She has been involved in various subcommittees and working parties to date and is a long standing mentor to many.

Kathy has been a great role model and mentor for newer interpreters through the years. Although, Kathy has also tested the waters for retirement, the call of interpreting sees her continue to work in this much-loved profession.