Jeff discovered their love for Latin America at 15, when they had the chance to travel to Ecuador. Their dad was working there for a summer leading conservation efforts. Jeff fell in love with the warmth and collectivism of Latin American culture, and decided that they wanted Latin America and Spanish to be part of their life. Jeff started learning Spanish intensively after this experience, and they became fully fluent by 20.  ​Jeff went on to build a career focused on expanding access, justice, and opportunity for folks in Berkshire County who have historically been excluded, or faced barriers to success. A large part of his work has focused on advancing opportunity and justice for the immigrant community, and being able to extend language access has been a huge part of that. More recently, Jeff learned Brazilian Portuguese so that he can better support our growing local Brazilian immigrant community.    Throughout their career, Jeff has seen the impact that expanding language access can have for organizations, individuals, and communities. Unfortunately, they've also seen that language access is often a place where organizations struggle. Even when they're investing significant amounts of money, language access doesn't always improve. Jeff founded Lionstone Language Consulting because they believe that improving language access is not only possible, but readily achievable. Their approach looks at language access as a system interweaving people, technology, tools, training, and culture. They are passionate about helping organizations of all kinds expand and improve their language access. They believe that improving language access not only benefits our immigrant community - it strengthens our local economy, our schools, and our communities and help keep the Berkshires a place where all of us can thrive.