Dr. Sharon Grigsby Hill has been interpreting professionally for 28 years and is a Master Level interpreter, which is the highest level of interpreting certification awarded by the Board for Evaluators of Interpreters (BEI). She also holds BEI Level IV and Medical Interpreter certification.   Currently, she is an Assistant Professor in the Deaf Studies program at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville.   

Her thesis is ground-breaking as it is the first mixed methods study to explore the impact of spoken African American Vernacular English (AAVE) on the work of ASL/English interpreters.  Her work explores language attitudes, perceptions, and biases regarding the usage of African American English in the field of interpretation/translation.

As part of her service to the profession, she served as a Board member (2007-2013) on the Texas BEI Advisory Board and then as Chair (2013-2017).  The BEI Advisory Board advises Texas BEI regarding the application of rules, policies and procedures as they relate to certified sign language interpreters, as well as evaluating and certifying interpreters.   For 12 years, she worked at the University of Houston as program Director and faculty member of the ASL Interpreting (ASLI) program.

She began her doctoral studies in the Interpretation and Translation Studies at Gallaudet University from fall 2015 to spring 2015.  In fall 2016, she transferred to the University of Birmingham-England to finalize her thesis in Applied Linguistics under the supervision of Prof.  Adam Schembri in 2023.