Kristi Cruz is a staff attorney at the Northwest Justice Project on the CLEAR*ASL statewide intake and referral line. Ms. Cruz was certified as an American Sign Language Interpreter in 1996 and became a member of the Washington Bar in 2009. Ms. Cruz was a co-reporter for the American Bar Association’s Standards for Language Access in Courts project, which created national standards for the effective delivery of interpreter and translation services in courts. Ms. Cruz is involved in state and national efforts to reduce language barriers for LEP and Deaf individuals as they access education, healthcare, legal, and governmental services. She is a volunteer with the Washington State Coalition for Language Access (WASCLA) and serves as the attorney representative on the Washington State Administrative Office of the Courts Interpreter Commission.