TRANSLATIONS

For those of you interested in translations, my email address is below as well as my telephone number. Please get in contact for a free estimate and turnaround time. Thanks!!


Curriculum Vitae
Michael D. Powers, Ph.D.
U.S. Court Certified in Spanish and English since 1980
Ph.D. in Spanish, Portuguese and English - University of Texas at Austin
8941 SW 160 Street, Palmetto Bay, Florida 33157
Telephone: (305) 252-0606
Fax: (305) 255-8212
e-mail: [email protected]

WORK EXPERIENCE:

Translations: approximately 8 to 10 million words translated from Spanish into English (60%), Portuguese into English (20%), English into Spanish (20%) in approximately 104 different disciplines.


01/01/95 TRANSLATOR / INTERPRETER / DIRECTOR LEGAL & TECHNICAL TRANSLATIONS, INC.
PRESENT Interpreter in the United States and overseas (Honduras, Trinidad and Tobago, Naples, Caracas, Venezuela, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Brazil): Duties include interpreting in federal court, depositions, conference interpreting, technical and non-technical translations, transcriptions and translation of tapes for DEA, United States Customs Service, ATF, etc., interpreting for Pre-Sentence Investigations for the United States Probation Office, etc. Work performed in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

12/00 – 02/01 (COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF’S) TRANSLATOR FOR THE SOUTHERN COMMAND
Part of the SPACINC (Special Assistants to the Commander-in-Chief) and in charge of translation matters for the Southern Command vis-à-vis communication in Spanish and translations into English and Spanish with the “down range” countries


02/02/92 - 12/31/94 EBON RESEARCH SYSTEMS
Senior Quality Control Supervisor of the Translation / Interpretation / Transcription Division; duties included interpreting in federal court, grand juries, conferences, tape transcriptions and certifications for DEA, United States Customs, ATF, High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, Internal Revenue Service, etc., written translations, interpretation for private companies, immigration, United States Probation, and the United States Attorney's Office. Work into English, Spanish and Portuguese. Supervision and correction of work done by ten other full time employees and approximately ten freelancers


1993 - PRESENT MIAMI DADE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Adjunct Professor in English and Spanish on the Kendall Campus; duties include teaching reading and writing courses in English and Spanish for Hispanics.

1983 - 1992 INTERPRETER / TRANSLATOR / CONSULTANT

Free-lance interpreter and translator in south Florida and the Dominican Republic; duties included interpreting in federal court, depositions, conference interpreting, technical and non-technical translations, transcriptions and translation of tapes for DEA, United States Customs Service, ATF, etc., including more than 2,000 times as an interpreter for Pre-Sentence Investigations for the United States Probation Office, etc. Consultant for the University of Arizona to co-write the Spanish section of the Federal Certified Court Interpreter's Exam, the oral portion of this test, and to be on an evaluation team for administering the test Consultant invited by the U.S. Department of Justice to give a two-day seminar to full time federal immigration interpreters to improve their skills. Work performed in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

1989 - 1992 MIAMI DADE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Assistant Professor in ESL, Spanish and Interpreting and Translation courses at the North and Hialeah Campuses; duties included teaching English, Spanish and interpretation (both consecutive and simultaneous) and translation (general and technical) courses.

1989, 1992 FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY
Adjunct Professor in Spanish in Boca Raton; duties included teaching a graduate linguistics course in Structure of the Spanish Language, advanced undergraduate grammar and a senior level course in Spanish sociolinguistics.

1988-89, 1991-92 NOVA UNIVERSITY
Adjunct Professor in Applied Linguistic in English and Spanish in Panama City, Panama, Central America; duties included teaching graduate level courses in Cross Cultural Communication, contrastive Analysis of Spanish and English, History of the Spanish Language, Sociolinguistics, Second Language Acquisition, etc.

1987-88 MIAMI DADE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Adjunct Professor in Translation and Interpreting courses at the Inter-American Center Campus; duties included teaching translation and interpreting courses.

1988 MIAMI DADE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Adjunct Professor in Portuguese at the South Campus; duties included teaching fourth semester college Portuguese.

1983 - 1989 UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI AT CORAL GABLES

Assistant Professor in Spanish and Lower Division Undergraduate Language Coordinator; duties included teaching Spanish for Hispanics, both beginning level and advanced level as well as graduate Spanish and English linguistics courses including methodology courses for second language acquisition.

1981 - 1982 LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY AT BATON ROUGE
Assistant Professor in Spanish and Portuguese and Director of the Program in Hispanic Linguistics and Philology; duties included teaching undergraduate Portuguese, graduate courses in Spanish linguistics, directing doctoral theses, and deciding which courses to be offered at the graduate level in Spanish linguistics.

1980 - 1981 INSTRUCTOR OF MEDICAL SPANISH
At Seton Hospital, St. David's Hospital, Brackenridge Hospital, University of Texas Nursing School all in Austin, Texas; duties included designing and teaching the courses.

1977 - 1981 UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
Assistant Instructor in Spanish; duties included organizing and teaching the first two semesters of Spanish.

1978 - 1980 UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS CONTINUING STUDIES
Instructor in Portuguese; duties included organizing and teaching four different levels of Portuguese.

1978 UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS INTERNATIONAL ANNEX
Instructor in ESL; duties included teaching English spelling.

1975 - 1977 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT MADISON
Teaching Assistant in Spanish; duties included organizing and teaching the first two semesters of Spanish.

1974 - 1975 AMERICAN LANGUAGE CENTER AT SAO PAULO, BRAZIL
Instructor of English as a Second Language; duties included teaching vocabulary and developing English fluency.


EDUCATION:

1977 - 1981 UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

Ph.D. Ibero Romance Philology and Linguistics
and English as a Second Language
Grade Point Average: 3.84
Tuition Grant (1980 - 1981)
Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society (top 10% - 1980)
Lilly M. Casis Research Grant (Mexico - 1980)
Rockwell Scholarship (1978 - 1980)

1975 - 1977 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT MADISON

M.A. Spanish
Grade Point Average: 3.55

1971 - 1975 INDIANA UNIVERSITY AT BLOOMINGTON

B.A. Spanish and Portuguese
Grade Point Average: 3.52
Indiana University Merit Scholarship (1972 - 1975)
Dean's List (1971 - 1975)

UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO (BRAZIL)
Undergraduate Student 1974-1975

UNIVERSIDAD CATÓLICA (LIMA, PERU)
Undergraduate Student January, 1973 – December, 1973

ACCOLADES:

April, 2006 United States Federal Court Middle District of North Carolina – scheduled to interpret in Portuguese in either a trial or a plea

April, 2006 United States Federal Court Southern District of Florida – scheduled to interpret in Spanish in telephone deposition originating in Puerto Rico.

April, 2006 United States Federal Court Eastern District of Louisiana – scheduled to interpret in Spanish in a trial on April 3 and 4, 2006/

2005 - 2006 United States Federal Court Middle District of Florida – interpreting for two weeks in the sentencing of four defendants, in addition to 8 other appearance in either hearings, trials, etc.

2005 - 2006 United States Federal Court Northern District of Iowa – Interpreter in a six different trials in the Northern District of Iowa.

2004 United States Attorneys Office – Southern District of Florida – requested to be the interpreter in Cuba for a court case being held in the southern district of Florida. I went to Cuba for one week with two Assistant United States Attorneys, three FBI agents, two defense attorneys, etc.


2003 United States Attorneys Office – San Juan, Puerto Rico – requested to be the interpreter in Grand Jury proceedings in which the government is seeking the death penalty – one week in San Juan in March, 2003. Recommended candidate out of the Certified Court Interpreters residing in Miami by the US Attorney’s Office in Miami.

2002 University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Hospital System contacted Powers and asked him to fill out an application to be the Program Director of the UNC Health Care System for Translation and Interpretation. Later Human Resources offered him the position and, because of his qualifications, was willing to pay him more than $100,000 per year.

2002 INTERPRETER in Washington, DC for campaign managers, Democrat and Republican, of the recent presidential race on the set of Cross Fire, George Washington University.

2001 INTERPRETER for Tom Brokaw of NBC News at Rockefeller Center for the election returns between Governor George W. Bush and Vice President Albert Gore from 3:00 PM the Tuesday of the elections until 5:00 AM the following day.

1999 INTERPRETER for a law firm from Ft. Lauderdale in a case in San Salvador, El Salvador, to depose the former wife and children of the decedent.


1999 INTERPRETER for a law firm from Ft. Lauderdale in a case in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, to depose the former wife and children of the decedent.


1998 INTERPRETER FOR a law firm from New York in Lima, Peru, with the Head Pediatric Psychologist from the Psychiatry Department from Harvard University to interview surviving children of a man killed in the American Airlines Buga, Colombia air disaster.

1998 INTERPRETER for a law firm from Washington, D.C., in Caracas, Venezuela, to correct translations done in Venezuela for FOGADE (FDIC) and to interpret in depositions that included the current Attorney General of Venezuela.

1998 INTERPRETER FOR • EWTN • (ETERNAL WORD TELEVISION NETWORK • TO INTERPRET FOR HIS HOLINESS POPE JOHN PAUL II. Interpreted homilies, etc. the Pope said in Spanish into English for this cable Catholic television network during his visit and four masses in Cuba in January, 1998.


1997 INTERPRETER FOR • 60 MINUTES • FOR AN INTERVIEW WITH MORLEY SAFER AND GENERAL MANUEL ANTONIO NORIEGA.

1997 EXPERT WITNESS FOR WAYNE HUIZENGA IN CARMAX VS. AUTONATION, U.S.A. concerning trademark infringement

1995 JUDGE NESBITT AT UNITED STATES FEDERAL COURT
Commendation for excellent job of interpreting for a Spanish-speaking witness in a trial in November, 1995, and recommended to join the staff on a permanent basis based on outstanding performance and qualifications.

1985-95 Director of Merit Teaching and Teacher Certification for the State of Florida after being appointed by former Governor Graham, now Senator Bob Graham

1993 JUDGE KING AT UNITED STATES FEDERAL COURT
Commendation for the excellent job of interpreting for a Spanish-speaking witness in the Nigel Bowe case.

1992 JUDGE UNGARO AT UNITED STATES FEDERAL COURT
Commendation for the excellent job of interpreting for a Portuguese-speaking plaintiff and a Galician-speaking defendant in a civil case.

1987 - 1992 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON D.C.
Contributing Editor of Latin American Languages for the Handbook of Latin American Studies initially published by Harvard University for the first two or three decades, and currently published by the University of Texas at Austin; duties included reading the approximate one hundred articles and books dealing with Latin American languages and linguistics which were sent to me by the Library of Congress each year and writing brief annotations to be included in its biannual publication.

1985 - 1989 TEACHING AWARD
Recognition of excellence in undergraduate Spanish majors

1986 OUTSTANDING EDUCATOR

Nominated for National Project for College Assessment Program Evaluation for outstanding educators from around the country

1984 FOREIGN SERVICE INSTITUTE, WASHINGTON D.C.
Invited as a prime first-class candidate in Spanish and Portuguese Applied Linguistics for Language Training Supervisor; earned ratings of 4.0 in Spanish and 3.5 in Brazilian Portuguese (average university professor score is 3.0 in each).

1980 ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES COURTS
Certified Court Interpreter for Spanish/English proceedings

CONSULTING

1986 - 2001 EXPERT WITNESS IN FEDERAL COURT
Called as an expert witness concerning language matters in Spanish and English approximately thirty times, sometimes for the defense, sometimes for the U.S. Attorney's office.

1985 – 1995 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
Coordinator for scoring and evaluation for certifying Spanish teachers for the State of Florida K - 12 at the Institute of Instructional Research; duties include examining and scoring tapes, establishing guidelines, grading, etc.

1985 UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
Invited to co-write the Spanish section of the Federal Certified Court Interpreter's Exam, the oral portion of this test (along with the former Chief Interpreter of the United Nations), and to be on an evaluation team for administering the test.

PUBLICATIONS

ARTICLES, CHAPTERS OF BOOKS
More than twenty articles accepted and published written in Spanish, Portuguese and English in professional journals published in the United States, Colombia, Spain, Peru, Chile, etc. dealing with Spanish and/or Portuguese language and linguistics. Recognition of bilingual lexicographic publications by international sources



Personal Information


I was brought up monolingually in English in the Midwestern United States in the little town named Culver, Indiana, a small town next to Lake Maxincukee. In high school I started studying Spanish. Later, as an undergraduate Spanish and Portuguese major at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, I ended up studying at the Universidad Católica in Lima Peru for one year and then stayed in Peru to visit Bolivia, Argentina, and southern Chile. Six months later I enrolled in the Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil, where I finished my B.A. with a double major in Spanish and Portuguese and area certificate in Latin American Studies.

Between Peru and Brazil I got married to a Peruvian in her home town of Lima, Peru where we met. She was an intelligent woman that earned a Bachelor's in Nutrition and Dietetics, and a caring mother. We were married to each other for 18 years until she succumbed to cancer. We had 4 children together and they were only 10, 7, 4 and 1 when she died.

Also on the personal level, I am presently married to my second and current wife. She was born in Cuba and raised in the U.S. since she moved to Mexico from Cuba when she was 12, and then continued on to the U.S. after she turned 13. She earned her Bachelor's in economics in New Jersey, and, in addition to academic intelligence, she is a natural with people. She has done an outstanding job under very difficult circumstances. She helped me raise my children, especially my two youngest ones, since they were 8 and 5 respectively, when we got married. Now she has now finished her Master's Degree in Mental Health - a field she has a lot of experience in after living in a combined family. It would be impossible to give her too much credit. I will forever be thankful to her.

We have a combined family of 5 children, consisting of two girls and three boys.

My stepdaughter earned honors graduating with her Bachelor's Degree in Environmental Studies from Florida International University.

My daughter earned her Master's Degree in film and is an animation editor.

My oldest son (second oldest child) is a Ph.D. Candidate in Germanic Studies, Comparative Literature, Philosophy and literary criticism.

My second son (third child) graduated in marketing.

And my youngest son is a college student.

I decided to go to the University of Wisconsin at Madison for my M.A. in Spanish, and soon learned that although I like literature, I absolutely love linguistics. Since I wanted to specialize in Hispanic linguistics, I applied to a few different universities for the same. Georgetown University and Cornell University offered me fellowships for my Ph.D., but I decided on the University of Texas at Austin as an Assistant Instructor since I felt it was the strongest in the area in which I wanted to develop my expertise - Spanish and Portuguese linguistics.

Formerly I was a full time professor for at Lousiana State University in Baton Rouge, Lousisana (1981-1982), the University of Miami in Coral Gables (1983-1989), and Miami Dade College (1989-1992). At the former I taught language and linguistics courses in Spanish, from the beginning levels up through the most advanced postgraduate subjects, and Portuguese language courses. At the University of Miami I taught language and linguistics courses, including Spanish for Hispanics on several occasions. At the latter, I taught ESL, Spanish, Portuguese and translation and interpretation classes.

I started interpreting in the year 1976 and started doing written translations in 1983. I became a United States Court Certified Interpreter in 1980 and was one of the original 10 to be certified in this language combination by passing the exam. In 1984 I was asked to help write the exam and adminsiter it. In addition to Spanish and English, I am certified as a Portuguese - English - Portuguese interpreter for immigration issues, and have interpred on different occasions in federal court in Portuguese.

My experience is varied and extensive. In interpreting, I have been an interpreter in more than 600 conferences, and in more than 3,400 depositions, trials and seminars. In conferences these include several in telecommuncations, business, marketing, pharmaceutical, medical, spiritual, etc. Depositions have been both civil and criminal with the longest one being the Magluta Falcón trial in Miami for more than 4 months. Roughly 90% of my interpreting work deals with Spanish and English and 10% with Portuguese and English. With regards to translations, I have translated more than ten million (10,000,000) words in a wide variety of fields. Approximately 50% of the translations have been from Spanish to English, 35% from English into Spanish, and 15% from Portuguese into English.

For three years (1991 - 1994) I worked full time as quality control supervisor for the Translation and Interpretation Division of Ebon Research Systems. In that capacity, I transcribed and translated hundreds of taped conversations, as well as hundreds of interpreting jobs and many, many translating jobs.

In 2000-2001, I was the official translator for the Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Command, General Peter Pace. He was the head of the Joint Chief of Commands from 2006 up until his resignation in August, 2007.

For me, interpreting and translating is more than a career. It is a passion, and I feel very fortunate that I am able to do what I love and make a decent living.