'Subject To Interpretation' is a weekly podcast that deep dives into the topics that matter to interpreters.🎙 Hosted by Maria Ceballos Wallis.

This week we speak with Robert Joe Lee about qualified interpreters, training, why it is important to do research, and how his role has changed over the years. 

Robert has a very extensive background. Robert has a bachelor's degree in Bible with a Spanish minor from Abilene, Christian University, a Master of Arts in Criminal Justice from Rutgers
Graduate School of Criminal Justice; two graduate degrees in theology from Princeton
Theological Seminary (M.Div. and Th.M.); and completed ten graduate courses in
linguistics, psychometrics, and ethnolinguistic/ethnographic research methods at the
Graduate School of Education of Rutgers University toward an M.Ed. in Language
Education.

He was staff to the New Jersey Supreme Court Task Force on Interpreters and
Translation Services (1982-1985) and managed the New Jersey Judiciary's program to
ensure equal access to courts for linguistic minorities from its inception in December
1985 until his retirement at the end of 2008.

After serving as staff to the New Jersey Supreme Court Task Force on Interpreter and Translation Services, he founded and managed the NJ Judiciary's language access program for 23 years.

Robert served on the team coordinated by the National Center for State Courts that formed the Consortium for State Court Interpreter Certification, then chaired its Technical Committee (which oversaw the testing program) and served on the Executive Committee for 13 years.
With language experts in many other languages, coordinated the development or revision of certification tests in about twenty languages.

Robert Joe served on the following advisory boards:
1. Court Interpretation: Challenges for the 1990s, and Court Telephone
Interpretation Services: Pilot Program, both administered by the National Center
for State Courts;
2. Introducing Immigrants to the United States Justice System, a project of the
American Judicature Society; and
3. The Master of Arts Program in Legal Interpreting, Department of Spanish and
Italian, College of Charleston.

He is married to Caryl Raye Tipton, a church choir director, singer, concert manager,
voice coach, office manager, and self-employed businessperson. He has four children
and four grandchildren. He is an elder in his church (First Presbyterian, Bordentown)
where he serves as Mission Commissioner.