Samantha Terzis CI/CT

Executive Director, ITP Instructor, Workshop Instructor

Samantha was born in Arizona, raised near the beach in beautiful Southern California. She attended camp in 5th grade where she was first exposed to signed music. She fell in love immediately. She had no idea that her interest would turn into a lifelong career. In high school she took her first class in sign language, and from there her journey continued. High school led to more than a passion for sign, but a growing love for art and theatre. Those three passions drove her life from that point forward. During the course of the regular school year, she attended Westmont College in paradise, also known as Montecito (Santa Barbara), CA. There she studied Art & Theatre.  During the Summers and after the completion of her BA degree she attended Palomar College majoring in Sign Language Interpreting. During her post college years in San Diego she shared 2 careers, Theatrical Lighting Design and Interpreting. It was the marriage of these two loves which became her driving force behind wanting to interpret music. She began traveling to interpret concerts. Outside of musical interpreting, she spent her days as an educational interpreter, and her nights and weekends creating lighting designs for the San Diego theatre. Samantha was blessed to enter and win several local Musical Interpreting competitions which drove her deep passion to strive to become a Professional Performance Interpreter. In 1995, Samantha moved to Nashville to continue her Performance Interpreting career. While here, she accomplished another of her dreams, teaching college. She spent 10 years working as an instructor at a collegiate ITP program. In the midst of that, she and a few other members of the Deaf Community noticed the significant need for improvements in Deaf accessibility in Tennessee. They worked together to create Gate Communications. She spent years standing on stages next to the greatest names in the music industry. She also continued to spend time behind lighting boards when her schedule allowed. She has now interpreted in 6 states, and in 3 different signed languages (ASL, LSF, LSM). She has taught workshops in 26 states and 2 countries. Samantha has been featured in a number of videos, and she has been blessed to author the book "Get REAL, A Real Look at Interpreting," a sarcastic, comedic and poignent look at interpreting. She has been traveling to and from Mexico regularly for 23 years, working with the Deaf Community there, and loves her work with other foreign Deaf Community members around the globe. Since moving to Nashville her life and career have been a wild ride.