Melissa Wurst

My company, Language Solutions, Inc. began specializing in healthcare translations about 15 years ago. Back in 2008, there was also a lot of interest in Plain Language writing as an initiative to improve English Healthcare Communications with health plan members to meet the guidelines for Medicare and Medicaid to make communications more understandable and written at a 6th grade level. This was 2 years before the Plain Language Act was signed into Law by President Obama. The CDC, NIH and other government agencies had been using plain language strategies and promoting health literacy strategies well before this time.

It started with a request from one of our largest clients and given our agility as a smaller company, we delved in to meet their needs. Given my personal background as a teacher of ESL for 12 years, I was already aware of literacy strategies and testing documents for readability but I needed the experts to mentor us on the research, the statistics, the success stories and the motivations to move patients to better health. When we started with Health Literacy, we were mentored by one of the industry’s leading experts in Health Literacy and we’re still partnering with them today.

President, Melissa Wurst is the owner and founding member of Language Solutions Inc. She has over 19 years of experience working in linguistics, languages and culture. Before founding Language Solutions Inc., Melissa had a broad career immersed in foreign cultures and linguistics beginning in 1988 with her service in Thailand with the U.S. Peace Corps implementing language and training programs.

She is actively involved in outcomes for the patient. She currently is the Co-Chair of the Patient Family Advisory Council of Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis and is on the Steering Committee of a PCORI funded project to improve hospital outcomes and identify the top research questions with the i-Hope survey.

Working at the grassroots level in development gave her the profound experiences with the people and her work, which propelled her into a professional teaching career for the next 12 years. She remained entwined with the international communities as the Assistant Director of the Midwest Refugee Center in Wichita, Kansas and subsequently relocating to Taiwan as the Director of a bilingual school.

Melissa returned to her hometown of St. Louis, Missouri in 1996 and became the Director of a foreign language learning program for an international company and worked on establishing standards and immersion programs for a number of corporate clients including Wal-Mart. The program was instrumental in helping to facilitate Wal-Mart's expansion into Germany, Brazil, Korea and Argentina.

Melissa's love of languages, culture and foreign nationals, and her vision for higher standards for her clients became the springboard for her founding Language Solutions Inc in 1998.

Her philosophy is one of education for all clients. Whether it is Standards, Realizing ROI, or Implementing Best Practices, her connection with clients empowers them to understand and take control of Localization practices and gain a better understanding of their ROI. Her ultimate goal is to provide her clients with a Trusted Advisor in this Industry.

Professional Focus:
World-Class Standards for Localization
Long-term Relationships with a Global Network of World-Class Translators
New Technology and Best Practices in Localization

Publications:
The Reachable Masses: Localizing websites
Safety in the Workplace: Using translation of safety stories to educate workers about dangers on the job

Presentations:

Best Practices in Designing for the International Market - This is geared towards our partnerships with Advertising and Public Relations agencies and involves us working with their design teams from the outset of a project.

What You Don't Know Can Hurt You - A frank discussion on the value of an international communication consultant that you can trust.

Education:

M.A. Curriculum and Instruction - Wichita State University

B.A. English - University of Missouri

Professional Memberships:

WBE Certified

ATA (American Translators Association)

World Trade Center Saint Louis

RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer), Thailand