Meet Our Team!

Danlin Zhao

Danlin Zhao was born and raised in Beijing, China, but she has been exposed to different cultural shocks at an early stage of her life in her visit to a partner school at London in elementary school and in the performances with the school choir at Rome and Milan in junior high school. She received her Bachelor’s in Translation and Interpreting (English<>Simplified Chinese) at Beijing International Studies University, and did an exchange program of Cross-Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen, Demark for a semester, as well as a summer language school at Spain. She has been to 19 countries and counting, and her life goal is to be a globetrotter.

Danlin is pursuing a Master’s in Translation and Localization Management at MIIS and is a recipient of General Stilwell Scholarship. She realized that localization is somewhat similar to travelling – bringing the localized results to the world with excitement but also challenges in the process. The experience of living in different countries over the past few years has enabled her to better adapt to working within a multicultural team and have a deeper understanding of how important localization can be to connect people across cultures.

Miao Zhang

Miao Zhang was born in Sichuan and raised in Beijing. She is extremely passionate about language and culture. That passion led her to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree in Linguistics. Throughout years of learning about learning, she understood that not everyone has the opportunity to study language even though such education may be direly needed. So she decided to pursue a Master of Science in Education with a focus on Teaching English to Speaker of other Language. She taught for about two years, immersing herself in the culture and lives of her students. Now she is ready to move forward and expand her field into her current pursuit, localization, and language.

She is now studying at Middlebury Institute of International Studies. She is fascinated by the process of bringing a product into another culture, yet still retaining its brand authenticity and flavor. She is eager to learn everything about localization and broadens her skillsets in order to lend herself easily to the fast-paced, data-focused, and team-oriented environment of localization. She hopes to become an expert in the field and work at a place that values creativity, authenticity, and integrity.

Elizabeth Canales

Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA, Elizabeth has always been fascinated by the melting pot of cultures of her hometown. This fascination eventually led her to study political science and international relations and now she is living her dream by pursuing her M.A. in Translation & Localization Management at The Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. This degree merges all of her passions by creating a borderless community anywhere in the world via language and localization.

When she is not trying to learn more about all the various Spanish language variants, you can find her getting lost while eagerly birdwatching or simply with her friends and loved ones. 

Xiayi Chen

Xiayi is passionate about bringing technological solutions to language challenges. She is from Zhanjiang, a seaside city in southern China. She is trilingual (Mandarin, Cantonese and English). She learned some French and Japanese and hopes that she can have more immersion to sharpen the languages. She can also watch Korean dramas without subtitles after watching them for over 10 years:)

She’s fascinated with international travel. Her top three travel destinations are Japan, Thailand and the United States. As a podcast lover herself, she listened to many ROAR episodes and that’s why she joined the team.

The international education at MIIS and her cross-industry internship experience working with colleagues from linguistic and technical backgrounds has made her view language from a more practical perspective. After graduation, she’s committed to combining language and technology to help companies succeed in global business.

Lena Wakayama

Lena (with a long “e”, like Lena Headey) Wakayama is a Japanese American, a Californian, a Marine, a Slytherin, a paladin, and a firm believer that both Noct and Ardyn deserved better. She’s a translation and localization management student at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies with a passion for internationalization and just making stuff work. After graduating in the spring of 2021, she hopes to work as a localizer for projects that inspire and challenge her.