I was born in Estonia, in a bilingual society, and languages have been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember. I began studying English and Russian in the first grade, and by the time I graduated from Tartu Medical School in 1989, I had a strong command of Estonian, English and Russian.

In 1990, life took me to Europe, where I first began working as a translator and interpreter between English and Estonian. Four years in Stockholm were followed by six years in Estonia, where I worked in several multilingual environments, and then 25 years in the United States. Living and working in English-speaking communities for much of my adult life has been invaluable to my career as a linguist.

Over the years, I have studied and worked in a range of fields, including medicine, law and finance, and I continue to believe strongly in lifelong learning. Languages, like almost everything else, are constantly evolving, shifting and growing — and a good translator has to keep growing with them.

Since 2007, I have increasingly specialised in EMA-related medical and regulatory projects, and I am very familiar with EMA guidelines, QRD templates, terminology and style requirements. While I am always open to interesting new challenges, my strongest and preferred field remains medical and pharmaceutical translation. The only language pair I work with professionally is English–Estonian.

Medical translation is my bread and butter, but literary and creative translation are where I get to let my imagination fly. I have translated fiction, non-fiction and songs, and I also worked as a linguistic editor for National Geographic International Editions, assisting with the launch of the Estonian edition of National Geographic.

Some of the books I have translated for the Estonian publishing house Pegasus include:

“In Praise of Slow” by Carl Honoré; “Destructive Emotions and How to Overcome Them: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama” by Daniel Goleman; “The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World” by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, MD; “Dream Journeys: Explore the World’s Most Incredible Places” by Mary-Ann Gallagher; several Donna Leon novels, including “The Girl of His Dreams”, “Drawing Conclusions”, “A Question of Belief” and “About Face”; and “Make Change that Lasts” by Rangan Chatterjee.

At present, I translate primarily into Estonian, but I am also in the process of adding English literary translations to my portfolio.