A terrible performance assessment prompted Sandra Alboum to take her career in a different direction, providing a communications bridge between mission-driven organizations and their underserved, non-English-speaking clients.

After earning a master’s in Spanish linguistics in 1999, Alboum worked as a legal secretary, first at the Embassy of Spain in DC and later at a private law firm. There, in 2002, a partner told her she was the worst legal secretary he’d ever had—but he believed she could do more. He gave Alboum six months to figure out her next move.

With that, Alboum Translation Services was born.

“I worked for whoever [would] hire me—lawyers, businesses,” says Alboum, who’s certified in more than 40 states as a courtroom Spanish interpreter. When she found herself stretched to capacity a few years later, she realized she could be more selective.

A career coach advised Alboum to make a list of her clients and checkmark her favorites. Seventy percent of them were nonprofits. Helping marginalized populations—like traumatized refugees and domestic violence victims—motivated her.

Today, Alboum contracts with organizations in the K–12 education, reproductive and public health, environmental, and human services sectors to provide fact sheets, brochures, forms, press releases, reports, and websites in nearly 170 languages, from Achi, a Mayan language native to Guatemala, to Zou, which originates in western Myanmar.

The Arlington-based company works with hundreds of linguists worldwide to provide on-demand and scheduled interpretation services via phone or Zoom. Clients range from national nonprofits and international nongovernmental organizations—such as Everytown for Gun Safety and the World Health Organization—to parents who need help translating their children’s individualized education programs, or IEPs, which detail the services they are entitled to under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

“I believe the world should be kinder, healthier, safer, and more peaceful, loving, and equal for all people—no matter their socioeconomic status, who they are, where they live, or what they believe,” Alboum says. “This is my way of helping to level the playing field for everyone.”