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THE SLI TEACHING TEAM

Peter Llewellyn-Jones (Director of Learning Programmes)


A founder member of the Register of Interpreters, Peter has headed the interpreting services for both the British Deaf Association and the Royal National Institute for Deaf People and has extensive experience of community, legal, medical, conference, television and theatre interpreting. He co-founded the University of Bristol sign language and interpreting research team (now the Centre for Deaf Studies) and has taught at the universities of Durham and Wolverhampton. Peter has been employed as a consultant to organisations and universities worldwide and acted as the ‘expert advisor’ on interpreting to European Commission Leonardo/Socrates projects. As well as being the Managing Director of SLI, he is also a Senior Teaching Fellow and Programme Director at the Leeds University Centre for Translation Studies. In January 2009 Peter was appointed to the Editorial Board of the new International Journal of Interpreter Education.  In July 2010, in recognition of his outstanding achievements in the field of sign language interpreting, Peter was awarded an Honourary Fellowship from the University of Central Lancashire.

Jayne Clarke (Course Administrator and Admissions Officer)


Jayne was the personal assistant to the vice-principals of Hartlepool College before becoming, in 1997, the administrator of the Durham University Deaf Studies Research Unit. She joined SLI as ‘office manager’ in April 1999 and, in November of the same year, was asked to take overall responsibility for the administration of SLI. Jayne is now a shareholder and the company secretary of SLI Ltd.

Emily Copping


Emily studied at Wolverhampton and Leeds universities before joining the Register of Interpreters. In 2008 she completed her Masters Degree in Interpreting Studies (with distinction). Now freelance, Emily does some conference work but mainly concentrates on community/public service interpreting. One of Emily’s specialist interests is quality in BSL-English translation.

Catriona McLeod


Catriona originally trained as a conference interpreter (French-English) but quickly found that she preferred the ‘human face’ of public service interpreting. Although she now interprets in a wide range of settings (she has passed the EU Commission and Parliament’s assessments as a French-Spanish-English interpreter), she specialises in Francophone-African immigration and asylum cases. Cat is also a Teaching Fellow at the Leeds University Centre for Translation Studies.

Mark McQueen


Mark, who is Deaf, has been a sign language user since early childhood and now teaches BSL in Edinburgh. A qualified motor mechanic and keen biker, Mark regularly tours Europe on two wheels and, for the past three years, has been a BSL and interpreting tutor and examiner for both SLI and Leeds University. He passed his NVQ Level 4 in 2005 and, in 2007, co-wrote and taught the two-day SLI workshop, ‘Sex, Drugs and Sausage Rolls’.

Annabelle Parker

Annabelle was a colleague of Peter’s at the RNID in the mid-1980s before becoming a Senior Lecturer at University College London, where she is responsible for the teaching of professional studies in speech and language therapy. Her main research interests are the development of clinical skills, and the speech and communication of deaf people. She pioneered the use of BSL in speech and language therapy with Deaf children and, in addition to her regular teaching commitments, runs courses for specialist Speech and Language Therapists throughout the UK and Europe. Ann has been teaching, supervising and working with BSL-English interpreters for more than twenty five years.

Linda Richards


Linda has been a colleague of Peter’s since the mid 1970s and is one of the most experienced and respected sign language interpreters in the country. In the mid-1980s, she established CitiServices in London and set up the first formal interpreter training course to be recognised by the CACDP. Concerned that her theoretical knowledge should be current, she has recently gained a Masters degree (with distinction) in interpreting studies. Linda is probably best known for her ten years or so as head of BSL-English translation and on-screen interpreting for the BBC.

Lee Robertson


A first-language BSL user, Lee was brought up in Edinburgh, gained a degree in aeronautical engineering from Kingston University, London, and now lives and works in Leeds. Having travelled extensively, Lee is currently setting up his own business and has a lot of experience of working with interpreters both in educational and professional settings. With his brother Mark (see above) he has taught and assessed interpreters for SLI and Leeds University for the past three years.

Maureen Saville


Mo completed the SLI/UCLAN Postgraduate Diploma (and joined the Register of Interpreters) in 2002 and has been part of the SLI teaching team since 2004. From 2000 to 2005 she was an interpreter and, then, senior interpreter with the Royal Association for Deaf People (RAD) specialising in community interpreting. Now a freelance interpreter and trainer, she is a qualified ASLI mentor and NVQ Assessor and Internal Verifier and has been the External Examiner of the MA in Interpreting at Leeds University and the BA Hons. in Deaf Studies: Communication Support and Education at Middlesex University.

Maria Sykes


Maria is Senior Education Interpreter for the Calderdale Specialist Inclusion Service in Halifax. She heads the communication team (which includes two Deaf Instructors) and oversees the training of Communication Support Workers in educational settings in Calderdale. With more than fourteen years of CSW/interpreting experience, she is particularly keen to raise the standard of interpreting and communication support in schools. A Member of the Register of Sign Language Interpreters, Maria qualified via the SLI/UCLAN Postgraduate Diploma in 2004.