Workshop | Beyond Language Services: Institutionalizing Language Access Using a Systems Change Approach

In this workshop, participants will learn about the importance of institutionalizing language justice into decision-making, planning, policy, resource allocation, budgetary decisions, and processes. In order to create a more just, anti-discriminatory system and improve outcomes for community, we must work to change the mechanisms of the system itself.

Tatiana Elejalde is an experienced systems change strategist, language access subject matter expert, and trainer who has worked for over 20 years as a language access and civil rights/immigrant rights advisor across sectors including city, county, state, and federal government, health and human services, behavioral health, education, and non-profit. Tatiana is specialized in policy and procedure analysis, developing tailored strategies for systemic change, and community collaboration, to assess institutional barriers to access. Tatiana uses a justice and anti-discrimination framework approach in her work. She is passionate about creating institutional and systems change to improve outcomes for communities, specifically for immigrant and refugee communities. 

Tatiana is from Medellin, Colombia. She immigrated with her parents to the United States in her youth and later her family also immigrated to Japan for a time during her high school years. Her multicultural and multilingual life lead to her love of all cultures and languages. Tatiana has lived experience with language barriers, discrimination, and the exclusionary and othering tactics of institutions and systems that impact people’s lives. Racial justice and language justice is her life’s work.