Volunteer Spotlight!

Lorna Evans, SIL International

Lorna first became involved with Unicode in 2000 as a conference participant. Her enthusiasm led her to volunteer as a lecturer at a Unicode conference, and for the past several years as an active proposal contributor and committee member. Lorna’s heart and passion are to assist digitally disadvantaged communities by bringing their language fonts, characters, and sounds to the Unicode standard. 

Lorna began her language journey typesetting Bibles in Ethiopia in 1990 and was fascinated by the multiple fonts and characters needing representation. When she heard that Unicode was moving to support Ethiopic characters, she had to get involved. 

When asked what she is most proud of, Lorna said, “Anytime I do a proposal to Unicode, it feels like the most important thing (for that language community).” She thrives on research and feels with each proposal, she is bringing digital access to people who need it most. Lorna is completely self-taught and currently focused on documenting Arabic script. She describes SIL International, an Associate member of the Unicode Consortium and her current employer, as the former kings of creating custom encoded fonts and she is working diligently to help SIL transition to Unicode.

As for her time involved with other Unicode staff and volunteers, she has enjoyed the camaraderie and attending technical committee and editorial meetings. Lorna is an active member of the Script Ad Hoc Subcommittee, as well as the primary representative to Unicode for SIL International.

Lorna shared that she grew up in Bolivia and says that salteñas, a savory pastry filled with beef stew, is still her favorite food. 

Editor’s Note: We appreciate and thank Lorna for taking time to tell us a little about herself as well as her years of contributions 

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