About the Staff

Jennifer Lazarev, Vice President/Co-Founder, began her journey into the Deaf community while in college.  She was taking her general courses and enrolled in an American Sign Language class to meet the language requirement.  Inspired by Deaf culture and supported by family and friends, she began her transition from customer service representative to professional interpreter.

She attended Vista College in Berkeley working toward her certificate in American Sign Language.  After completing her program at Vista, she worked for DCARA, the forerunner in Deaf services, for 5 years. There she fine tuned her skills and built a strong rapport with many Deaf individuals.

With years of experience, Jennifer has worked hard to obtain her interpreter certification and continue her goal of serving the Deaf.  She has an outstanding reputation in the Deaf community where she is often mistaken as a child of Deaf adults (CODA).  This is one of the highest compliments a hearing person can receive from the Deaf.  This proves that she not only blends in comfortably within their community, she is expected to give them support and assistance when interacting with hearing peers.

Mistie Glass, President/Co-Founder, brings to the organization her working knowledge of running an interpreting agency, as well as, maintaining a continuing education program for one of the largest employment law seminar companies in North America.  She also has a strong knowledge of the ADA and related issues.  This gives our agency an advantage in offering services beyond interpreting.

Having spent two and a half years structuring and streamlining office procedures in an agency that offered strictly interpreting services, Mistie was not only able to apply her strong organizational skills; she learned that there is a need for additional services to educate and inform clients.

Jennifer and Mistie have the ideas and resources to bring much-needed programs to the people they serve.  No consumer should be in the position of making such important decisions with so little information.   We want to change all of that and in the process, show our commitment to the customers and communities we work so closely with.