Lena Moran is a native of Mexico City, Mexico and was raised in Santa Barbara, California where she moved to at the age of six. She attended local schools Franklin Elementary, Santa Barbara Junior High and Santa Barbara High.
Lena holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Studies from Antioch University Santa Barbara, where she did research on the topic of children who are used as interpreters. Lena completed her Master’s Degree in Education with an emphasis on Social Justice and Leadership, also at Antioch, with her thesis focusing on the creation of an evaluation system of interpretation and translation services in school districts. Lena is also a graduate of the Antioch University Women & Leadership certificate program, where her experiential leadership project focused on increasing language access across the Central Coast.
Lena has a passion for language justice and has utilized her skills in various capacities, from starting a Young Interpreters Club, to providing interpretation at assemblies, conferences and meetings and translating a variety of documents. After being part of the Language Justice Network for three years, Lena joined the Just Communities team in Spring of 2015 and she currently serves as the Language Justice Initiative Program Manager. Lena is also licensed trainer for The Community Interpreter International, a program of Cross Cultural Communications.
Lena lives in Ventura County and loves spending time with her partner Eddie and her son Antonio.