From Brazil to Pittsburgh’s North Side, Noelle Has Turned Her Passion For Connection Into a Life’s Work.

In the hills of Pittsburgh’s Northside stands the former Incarnation Academy middle school, constructed in 1954 and shuttered in 2006. Inside the same building, now a grassroots-led community art center, lives one of our Portuguese interpreters, Noelle. Originally from Brazil, Noelle has been interpreting with Global Wordsmiths since 2023, but her professional experience spans much longer. She began translating legal documents in Washington DC and then found herself in Pittsburgh, where she began interpreting with local community services agencies. 

Noelle and her husband shared a vision to serve the community, and her true motivation for moving to Pittsburgh was to open an art center for public use. That dream became reality in a converted school building on the North Side’s Observatory Hill. Renovated classrooms have now become accessible art spaces and an old stage was repurposed into a gathering space for neighborhood potlucks. Noelle herself is an artist-in-training, as she’s been experimenting with making ceramics for two years now. She draws inspiration from her favorite Brazilian artist, Portinari, who also emphasized community service and social issues in his art that others overlooked during the time.

Noelle’s passion for advocacy extends to her work at Global Wordsmiths— her favorite part about interpreting is building trust with the people she interprets  for and learning how to best address their needs. Coming from a background of early education and childhood development, it's no surprise that she treasures early intervention assignments, working with therapists, parents, and children to individualize care. She thrives during complicated assignments, like labors and deliveries, and enjoys learning about the medical equipment and technical information needed to treat certain conditions. To Noelle, language access matters because she can use her skills as a mediator to ensure that both the client and the consumer truly connect and understand each other, even when they speak different languages.

Beyond her work as a linguist, Noelle has been a resource for the Brazilian community in Pittsburgh, helping individuals understand their rights and complete administrative tasks that may seem menial to English speakers, such as registering children for school or navigating technology. In her free time, you may find her enjoying some Fejiaoda, a Brazilian black bean stew, brushing up on her Italian language skills, or at the Mercearia Brasil, a Brazilian market in Allison Park. Whether she’s interpreting or supporting her community, Noelle brings the values of her Brazilian heritage and a spirit of generosity to everything she does. (Curious about Noelle and her husband’s creative studio on the North Side? Check out this article in the Pittsburgh City Paper!)