Meet the newest member of the ProZ Pro Bono board of directors: Lori Thicke
Not that long ago, I was having dinner with Enrique Cavalitto, a long-time colleague, mentor, and friend, and his better half, Haydée (who had also been a co-worker of mine back in the days when I was teaching). I think Quique and Haydée were the first people to invite me into their home when I landed in Argentina at a tender young age, when I was still quite handsome and full of no idea of what life had in store, or any sense of urgency to plan for what was next. But, really, I cannot stress enough, people, how handsome and full of purposeless purposefulness I was back then, before the turn of the last century...
Quite some time had passed since we last talked, so when Quique asked how work was going, I proceeded to fill them in on my past year and a half plus in PPB. I will readily admit that, as tends to happen when I'm really into something, I may have gone on extensively and in far more detail than is required in response to a simple "So, how is work going?" But they indulged, and listened patiently as I rambled on about the work we're doing and the wide array of nonprofits and people we are able to help, and all of the work still to be done...
At some point, either in response to a question from Quique or simply because my train was by then unstoppable, I said something to the effect of, "You know who I would really like to add to the board of directors of PPB? Someone like Lori Thicke." I had already been in touch with Lori because I wanted to interview her about her life, her work, and her new book. International Translation Day 2026 was fast approaching, and I thought that would make a great addition to the event.
To which Quique replied, "Well, then why don't you just ask her?" A good mentor gets straight to the thing or puts the issue in a way that makes you go, "Ohhh, yeah. Right!"
Lori Thicke founded Translators without Borders in 1993. Even if you are new to the language industry, or work outside of it, you may know that TwB is now the world's largest language charity. The vision was simple, and very much in line with ours: allow nonprofits who are doing good to dedicate their efforts and budgets towards what they do best, while linguists leverage their unique skills towards what they do best: breaking linguistic and cultural barriers to support them, exponentially increasing their potential impact and service to those who are most in need of vital information and assistance.
In 2010, in the wake of the earthquake and humanitarian crisis in Haiti, when language support response was crucial, a call for volunteer linguists was put out on ProZ.com. The community response was so strong that TwB now had more potential volunteers to screen than they could handle. The ProZ.com team then quickly built a screening center to allow for more efficient first-stage vetting of volunteers. ProZ.com's experience with screening professionals for its Certified PRO Network (CPN) allowed for the fast-tracking of new linguists into the TwB network of volunteers. That screening center ended up processing more than 14,000 volunteer submissions. Out of the screening center grew a full-blown Translation Management System (TMS), which helped with further scaling of operations, and by the end of 2016, the "translation center" had seen 37 million words translated in favor of humanitarian causes around the world. Enrique Cavalitto, the fellow I was having dinner with, was at the helm of that translation center on the ProZ.com end of the collaboration with TwB.
In 2015, the ProZ.com team in Argentina had the chance to host a couple of employees of Lexcelera, the language services company Lori founded in 1986, who needed an office from which to work. It was a great opportunity for the ProZ.com team to see first-hand some of the workings of a language company and gain a deeper understanding of their needs in order to be able to better serve all language companies (and thereby the freelancers who work with them).
In 2017, Lori came to Argentina and spent some days working from the office with both the folks from Lexcelera and the ProZ.com team. Her stay had to be cut short, but I remember thinking, Come on, Jared. You're socially inept at best, but you've got to use this opportunity to pick this lady's brain and get some wisdom! I think I did, as best I could, but I also remember very clearly accompanying her to pick up some things she needed from a nearby kiosk, and in the course of the conversation realizing that we were both just two human beings trying to figure out how to do what was required of us, from our respective positions, to help the people around us succeed.
I know full well that I have started this post with a flashback nested within a flashback nested within a flashback... this is the sort of thing I will do if you give me a blank page and some time and no editor slapping me on the back of the head for wasting internet ink. Sorry about that.
So we're back at the dinner, and Quique says, "Well, then why don't you just ask her?"
So I did. And she said yes, she'd be delighted. And I felt that in a certain sense, for PPB, something had come full circle. And I was obviously over the moon at the prospect of having someone who has done so much in the language industry, and in the humanitarian sector, now helping to inform the direction of our organization.
This is my long-winded and meandering way of announcing here that Lori Thicke is the newest member of the ProZ Pro Bono board of directors.
I hope that PPB volunteers and partner nonprofits reading this also share in my excitement over welcoming Lori on board.
If you missed my interview with Lori, you can watch it in full below, or on the PPB YouTube channel.
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