Hi Reader,
Ensuring language access happens in our community is a multifaceted undertaking. To make it a reality, many organizations and individuals have to work together, always asking how we can weave together a more connected community.
The World Speaks team is a microcosm of how language access works in the greater community. Our staff, board members, and volunteers all join to help organizations, businesses, and individuals bring greater language access to the Omaha area. Today, we want to introduce you to four of the people who help World Speaks, and in turn, language access in our community.
First, we’d like to introduce you to Paulina Campos-Guzman, our Program Manager! Paulina oversees the development and delivery of World Speaks educational programs, including our community language courses, private tutoring, business language services, as well as workshops and training sessions. Paulina came to language access work after ten years in the aviation industry, which showed her the importance of language access firsthand. Always mindful of the impact language access work has on the community, she shares that language access “fosters new connections and collaborations, raises awareness, celebrates our diversity, and drives us all toward a more inclusive, vibrant, and respectful world.”
Next is Hannah Michelle Bussa, one of our board members! Hannah is on the strategic committee, ensuring that we are implementing our strategic plan and helping with initiatives like Language Access Week. Hannah came to language access work due to her experiences being hard of hearing and struggling to access information in certain spaces. She felt called to work with World Speaks due to our support of the Deaf community and including ASL as part of language access work. She shares, “Working toward language access also reduces burdens on people. I grew up with friends who regularly had to interpret information for their parents, which is a lot of extra work for a child. Being hard of hearing, I typically have to work twice as hard to understand conversations, or I just miss out on the information. Language access reduces these sorts of barriers, and many more, for people in our communities.”
Next, we have Anahi Salazar, another board member! The World Speaks board helps approve the budget, navigate organizational changes or shifts, and give input on different scenarios surrounding our work! Anahi notes she loves learning how other people communicate and sees the World Speaks mission as one that bridges different cultures and languages to greater community understanding. She says that language access is important because “Sharing a smile goes a long way, smiles are communicative across every language and culture. But language access can unlock a whole new relationship with someone, they can become a friend, a mentor, or a partner, and that’s what communities thrive on. Communities that have individuals who can live, work, and play together can bring about positive change, and language helps with that understanding.”
Finally, we have Leah Whitney Chavez, the Executive Director and founder of World Speaks. Leah wears many hats – overseeing operations, fundraising, carrying the vision and mission of World Speaks into the world, and ensuring that we can keep doing the job we are here to do! Her journey to language access wasn’t straightforward – she had a passion for learning the Spanish language, which turned into launching World Speaks community courses, helping people learn about others. She focuses on the future of language access in our community, and says “There’s so much to learn about the linguistic variety we have in our community, and the ways we can create programs based on community needs and how to make our community accessible is so exciting to me.”
These four incredible individuals help World Speaks reach into many different communities and help us build a foundation for language access. We’ll be featuring more of our incredible team in the coming months – so if you have a question about language access for our staff or board, hit “reply” and let us know!
