Sharon Hill is an assistant professor in Deaf Studies in the Department of Theory and Teacher Education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Hill holds Master Level interpreter certification, the highest level awarded by the Board for Evaluators of Interpreters (BEI). She also holds BEI Level IV and Medical Interpreter certification. Her work as an interpreter practitioner allowed her the opportunity to work in a variety of settings such as mental health/psychological, quasi-legal, educational, platform and theatrical. She has been interpreting professionally for 29 years and remains actively engaged in community service within the signing communities. As part of her service to the profession, she served on the Texas BEI Advisory Board as board member and chairperson (2007-2017).

Her doctoral studies began in the Interpretation and Translation Studies at Gallaudet University in fall 2015. Fall 2016, she transferred to the University of Birmingham-England to finalize her thesis in Applied Linguistics. Her research is ground-breaking as it is the first mixed methods study to explore the impact of a spoken English variation on the work of ASL/English interpreters. Her work explores language attitudes, perceptions, and norms regarding the usage of African American English in the field of interpretation/translation.

From 2012-2024, she worked at the University of Houston as the undergraduate program Director and a faculty member for the ASLI program. Her focus was to craft curriculum for the first BA degree program in Texas for ASL/English interpreters. The program’s success was marked by the fact that program graduates that sat for BEI Basic examination passed at a rate of 68%, compared to the overall nationwide pass rate of just 43% as of 2022.

Professor Hill is focused on enhancing curriculum for interpreter training that combines the use of AI with sociolinguistic data for improved consistency in message delivery. Since arriving the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in fall 2024, has achieved the following:

Supported and provided rationale for the name update of the degree specialization from Educational Interpreting to ASL Translation & Interpreting;

Recipient of 2024-2025 Digital Project Cultivator award to support the application of AI and VR technologies in training ASL/English trainees;

Recipient of 2025-2026 CURCI grant to support archiving of historic Tennessee artifacts housed at the Tennessee Schools for the Deaf (TSD).