About Beyond the Words, Inc.

Our agency was established in 2003 as a result of co-founders, Mistie Glass and Jennifer Lazarev’s, desire to do more for our clients, interpreters and the Deaf Community. We wanted to raise the bar on the level of service we provide and the kind of interpreters we work with. We have achieved our mission to always go above and beyond average and we strive for excellence in all that we do.

Jennifer Lazarev 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. Having earned her CI/CT in 2002, she has worked in this industry ever since.

Mistie Glass, has a Bachelors Degree in Organizational Communications. She worked for ten years in a personnel law seminar company before making the move to the interpreting agency field. Having spent two and a half years structuring and streamlining office procedures in an interpreting agency that offered strictly interpreting services, she 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.

 

We’re here, to serve our community

Jennifer and Mistie have the ideas and resources to bring much-needed support 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.