Leadership Council

Administrator: Liming Pals

Liming Pals is a passionate linguist, who has worked as a translator and interpreter for more than fifteen years. She is currently working as a localization project manager at Workiva. Liming values life-long learning and continues to serve companies, clients, and her community as a conduit to bridge gaps and improve communication. She has a diverse educational background, holding a master’s degree in international law, Master of Business Administration and Master of Finance. She currently serves as the Assistant Administrator of the ATA Chinese Language Division. If she ever gets free time, she enjoys learning guitar, exercising, and riding bikes with her three children.

Assistant Administrator: Rony Gao

Rony Gao is a freelance conference interpreter and ATA-certified translator based in Toronto, Canada. He has been a CLD member since 2017 and a volunteer since 2022. When not translating or interpreting, he enjoys developing pedagogical materials for T&I training, sweating on the tennis court, and making his two sons sweat by teaching them Chinese characters.

Webmaster: Shaoli Gu

Shaoli Gu is an ATA-certified translator (English to Chinese; Chinese to English), court-certified Mandarin interpreter, and NBCMI medically certified Mandarin interpreter based in Honolulu, Hawaii. She has been volunteering for CLD since 2019. Passion, commitment, and a curious mind are the key ingredients she infuses into everything she does.

Yifeng Editor-in-Chief: Sijin Xian

Sijin Xian is an ATA-certified translator (English to Chinese and Chinese to English), subtitler, and Mandarin interpreter based in Silver Spring, Maryland. She holds an MA in Ethics, Peace, and Global Affairs from American University and has been translating research reports for non-governmental organizations since 2014. She branched out into audiovisual translation in 2018 and regularly subtitles entertainment and streaming content into Chinese, including multiple Academy Award-winning titles. She also translates personal and official documents and provides interpreting services for researchers and immigration law firms. She currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of CLD’s Yifeng Blog. True to her Sichuanese roots, Sijin counts hot sauces among the bare necessities of life.

Podcast Host: Jessie Liu

Jessie is a conference and court interpreter in California. She enjoys chatting with and getting to know people, which probably explains why she is the new podcast host! One fun fact about Jessie is that she doesn’t like making choices. When presented with more than two options, she freezes like a deer caught in headlights. When she’s not stressed out by preparing for certain interpreting assignments or having to make choices between pizza or sushi for dinner, she usually spends time building Legos, putting jigsaw puzzles together, or playing music on the piano with her two boys, who play the cello.

Event Organizer, Social Media Manager: Tingting Qin

Tingting Qin is a court certified Mandarin interpreter, DOJ immigration court interpreter, CCHI Certified Healthcare Interpreter, and ATA Certified English to Chinese translator. She specializes in court proceedings, depositions, immigration interviews, conferences, business meetings, psychological evaluations, clinical trials, and more. She has been a member of the ATA and ATA Chinese Division since 2017. Tingting is passionate about the language profession and committed to advancing it with other professionals in the Chinese division. Located in Kansas City, MO, Tingting enjoys spending time with her family and going to national parks in her spare time.

Social Media Manager: Lenny Yang

Lenny Yang is an ATA-certified translator (English into Chinese), a Mandarin court interpreter in the New York State Unified Court System, and a CCHI Certified Healthcare Interpreter. With over a decade of expertise working as a freelancer based in New York City, Lenny has successfully cultivated a diverse portfolio of clients across various sectors, leveraging his linguistic skills and cultural insights to meet their specific communication needs. Outside of his professional endeavors, Lenny is an avid museum explorer, an enthusiast of alternative rock, a cinephile at heart, a lifelong soccer player, and a semi-world traveler.

Social Media Manager: Mingshu Zhang

Mingshu’s interpreting experience can be traced back to her pre-school and kindergarten years. Born and raised on a horse farm in Inner Mongolia, northern China, till the age of 7, Mingshu was the go-to person when her parents needed to communicate with their Mongolian neighbors, a couple and their 5 children. Having lost Mongolian language after moving to the city with her parents, Mingshu must have remembered the joy of helping bridge the language barriers. An ATA certified translator, court certified Mandarin interpreter as well as qualified interpreter for Immigration Court and Federal Court, Mingshu finds herself mostly working either in the courtrooms or law firm offices. When she’s not working, Mingshu loves kickboxing, Pilates and learning German on Duolingo.

Administrator Emerita: Tianlu Redmon

Tianlu Redmon served as CLD Assistant Administrator from 2018 to 2020 and as Administrator from 2020 to 2024. She is an ATA-certified translator (English into Chinese and Chinese into English) and court-certified Mandarin interpreter. She most frequently works in legal, business, and conference settings. Tianlu has been a CLD member since 2014 and a CLD volunteer since 2015. She credits the joy and success in her freelance career to her professional memberships. She enjoys reading, hiking, and solving puzzles. Her least favorite activities include writing a bio in the third person. She lives with her husband, two sons, and their adopted greyhound in Houston, Texas.