By: Dr. Russ Shughart
When our federal government colleague Dr. Maria Brau led the petition from members of the American Translators Association to establish GovD as ATA’s 19th division in 2015, she emphasized the mutual benefits of focused engagement and interaction involving members of U.S. government entities and ATA.
Specifically, Dr. Brau noted that requests for specialized language services at federal, state, and local levels of government had increased over the past decade, adding that government agencies had emerged as major employers of translators and interpreters. Accordingly, Dr. Brau suggested that ATA members would profit from greater exposure to government needs and practices, while translators and interpreters employed by the government would benefit from greater interaction with non-government working professionals.
The National Language Service Corps (NLSC) is a notable federal government program that is open to ATA members on a voluntary basis for employment and interaction. NLSC facilitates the utilization of non-government language service providers to satisfy broad and growing requirements for language services, regional knowledge, and cultural expertise within various U.S. government organizations.
Led by the Defense Language and National Security Education Office (DLNSEO), NLSC program managers seek candidates with proven skills, competencies, and experiences in interpreting and translation, particularly if such skills have been endorsed through credentialing or certification. To this end, ATA members should consider if and how voluntary membership in NLSC might align with their career endeavors and professional development ambitions.
A key development of NLSC in recent years has been the steady increase in interagency agreements between DLNSEO and government and defense partner organizations for the provision of specialized language services to meet validated requirements. Under the heading of “Language for the Good of All,” DLNSEO’s “NLSC Partner” initiative features administrative pathways to provide language expertise to a large number of government entities – to include those of the Department of Defense as well as to the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Department of State.
Several members of ATA actively participate as NLSC paid volunteers. Accordingly, NLSC program managers frequently attend ATA annual conferences in an exhibitor capacity to explain the details of NLSC participation and to recruit language experts on behalf of government entities.
For more information on ATA colleagues who support NLSC, please see the link below to an article from the November-December 2020 edition of The ATA Chronicle: “Language for the Good of All: ATA Members Make a Difference in the National Language Service Corps.”
To learn more about the NLSC program and voluntary membership, please visit https://nlscorps.org/.
Feel free to contact me for more details on NLSC and employment opportunities.
Dr. Russ Shughart
Chair, ATA Government Linguist Outreach Task Force (GLOTF)
Arlington, VA