Summit Onsite Moderators

Katharine Allen, M.A., is a healthcare and community interpreter with over 3 decades of experience interpreting, training, and designing curricula. She is co-president of InterpretAmerica. She is lead developer and licensed trainer for The Indigenous Interpreter® 60-hour training and has helped embed professional interpreting into medical missions in Mexico. She was an instructor for the Glendon College Masters in Conference Interpreting and currently teaches for the UMASS Amherst Translation and Interpreting Studies online certificate program. Katharine is co-author of The Community Interpreter® International: An International Textbook and The Medical Interpreter-A Foundation Textbook for Medical Interpreting. Katharine has an MA in Translation and Interpretation from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

Diana Altuzar is a CHI™ English/Spanish Certified Medical Interpreter and translator. Diana has a degree in Systems and Data Analysis from Universidad del Norte in Colombia, her native country and also a BA in Computer Science from Lakeland College in Wisconsin; she has combined her education with over 20 years of experience in international business, business and medical interpretation and extensive translations, specializing in the fields of business, insurance and medical.

Diana has been a staff medical interpreter at UW Health, an integrated health system located in Madison, WI, for the last 10 years and she was recently promoted to Manager of the Interpreter Services Department.

Enrica J. Ardemagni holds a Ph.D. in Spanish from the University of Wisconsin in Spanish and a M.A. in Spanish and Historical Linguistics from the University of Arkansas.  Currently she is Professor Emerita at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) where she taught all levels of language and literature as well as Spanish for the Professions and Specific Purposes (SPSP-business, legal, medical). She developed over fifteen courses in translation and translation studies and interpreting and served as Director of the Undergraduate and Graduate Certificates in Translation Studies and Director of Graduate Studies. She has published and presented over sixty scholarly articles and presentations and she is a published literary translator. During her tenure at IUPUI she received sixteen teaching awards. Professor Ardemagni is one of the founding members and served three terms as President of the Midwest Association of Translators and Interpreters and served two terms as the Administrator of the ATA Literary Division. Currently she is President of the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care and Administrator of the ATA Educators Division.  After retirement, she has had the opportunity to continue teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in translation, interpreting and medical Spanish, and she writes curriculum in interpreting studies for universities. She holds a Certificate in Online Teaching, she is an Indiana Supreme Court Certified Interpreter, a Certified Healthcare Interpreter™-Spanish and she is working as a freelance translator and interpreter.

Waleska Bonthrone is owner of Spanish For All Austin, L.L.C (SFAA). She graduated as Speech Therapist from Universidad Rafael Landivar, Guatemala City and also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business with Marketing, University of Phoenix. Waleska acquired many years’ experience dealing with doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, laboratories, rehabilitation staff, pharmacists, home care services, and insurance companies as a qualified healthcare interpreter. Waleska identified training needs in the Healthcare Interpreting field and in 2013 created the first individualized program offered in Texas, the U.S., and worldwide. SFAA’s Premium One-on-One 40 Hour Healthcare Interpreter Training Online is listed as one of the national online prerequisite programs by CCHI. SFAA also offers a 6 hours Continuing Education course accredited and listed by CEAP-CCHI. Waleska has over 16 years of experience in the Education and Business fields working with people of diverse ages and ethnicities. She has worked as teacher and speech therapist helping people to achieve their goals and improve their rehabilitation prognosis, with excellent results and mutual satisfaction. Waleska’s professional activities are former Secretary and Executive Board Member of the Texas Association of Healthcare Interpreters and Translators (TAHIT) 2014–2018, former Chair of the Board of Directors, Member of the Board of Directors of The National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters (NBCMI) 2015–2016, former IMIA Texas Chapter Chair, International Medical Interpreters Association (IMIA) 2014–2016, former Director of Membership of Austin Area Translators and Interpreters Association (AATIA) 2014–2015.

Born and raised in Taiwan, Chi-Wei Chang has been a healthcare interpreter at the University of Michigan Health System since 2003. Chi-Wei became a CCHI-certified Mandarin Chinese interpreter in 2010. She is currently a supervisor for the Chinese and Thai interpreters.

Outside of interpreting, Chi-Wei is also a registered nurse, licensed in the state of Michigan. She is currently working as an RN case manager.

Chi-Wei received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from National Taiwan University. She continued her education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she received her MS in early childhood education.

Kathleen Diamond is a consultant, entrepreneur, and business leader in the language services industry. In 1979, she founded Language Learning Enterprises, Inc. (LLE®), a full-service language company based in Washington, D.C. She is recognized as an early pioneer in Telephone Interpreting, launching LLE-LINK in the 1990s. Over the next two decades, under her leadership, the company grew from a sole proprietorship to a dynamic, multimillion dollar corporation, serving a wide range of clients, in both the private and public sectors, across the United States, and worldwide. In 2009, Kathleen negotiated the sale of LLE to CyraCom International, a language service company in Tucson, AZ. In 2018, Burke&Herbert Bank in Alexandria, VA elected Kathleen to their Board of Directors. Kathleen continues her work advocating for the importance, and relevance of language services as Chairman of ASTM F43 Language Services and Products and serving as a Treasurer on the Board of Directors of the Association of Language Companies (ALC). Kathleen is the Founding Chair of ALC Bridge, an initiative launched to connect ALC companies to universities for the purpose of collaboration on the preparation of students for careers in the language industry. She completed a six year term as a Founding Commissioner on the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI) in 2015. Kathleen’s consultancy focuses on helping companies grow by increasing value, maximizing resources, diversifying revenue streams and building a strong succession plan. She earned her M.A. and B.A. from the University of Florida, and is an alumna of IES Abroad, Nantes, France. She is fluent in both Spanish and French.

Danilo Formolo, MBA, is the Director of Language Services for Atrium Health, one of the largest healthcare systems in the U.S. Danilo is responsible for strategizing Language Services as one of the most robust language access programs in the nation. Initiatives involve enhancing the Patient Experience through innovative and cost effective measures. Danilo earned two Bachelor’s Degrees from UNC Charlotte, plus an MBA. Danilo is a Bridging the Gap trainer and has delivered presentations at national conferences. He serves on the Interpreter Education Advisory Board for a local community college, in addition to serving on other boards and councils.

Fernando Gargano is an experienced leader with a track record of achievements in the language access in healthcare, with 20 years of experience in the field. Strong focus on bridging the gap in language access by focusing on the development of efficient processes by leveraging technology. Before joining Paras and Associates, he was Manager of Multicultural Affairs and Patient Services at Cambridge Health Alliance, MA. And prior to that he was a staff Portuguese interpreter at Cambridge Health Alliance.

Carola E. Green, BS in Communication, Federally certified English/Spanish court interpreter and former California state court interpreter is originally from Guatemala.  Carola served on the Standards Training & Certification Committee of the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC) and helped develop national ethics, standards of practice and standards of training for medical interpreters. She also served on the California Healthcare Interpreting Association (CHIA) Standards & Certification Committee working on the nationally recognized California Standards for Healthcare Interpreters – Ethical Principles, Protocols, and Guidance on Roles & Interventions.

She served as key staff for the Federal Court Interpreter Certification Examination (FCICE) and the Consortium for Language Access in the Courts (CLAC) programs at the National Center for State Courts. She has over twenty years of experience in professional interpreting in the legal and medical fields.

Carola also has extensive experience in developing interpreter training curricula, teaching and training interpreters, and all aspects of interpreting test development, test administration, and test rating activities.

Elisa Gustafson works as a Spanish Health Care Interpreter in Minnesota since 2001. Before that she lived in Argentina, where she obtained a Master’s degree in Agricultural Sciences and Production and a Specialization in University Education.  She obtained the Certificate in Translation and Interpretation from the University of Minnesota, she is ATA certified from English into Spanish, a CCHI certified medical interpreter, and a conference interpreter.  She was instructor of the TRIN program at the University of Minnesota for 7 years for the course “Interpreting in the Health Care Setting”. She is a member of UMTIA since 2002, and has occupied the positions of Membership Director, Member at Large, Secretary and President of UMTIA between 2007 and 2018.

Dana Hable, M.S., works as a professional medical, court, community, and conference interpreter in Arabic and French since 2004, and has been a Certified  Healthcare Interpreter since  2012.

As a teacher of Arabic language and culture, she took part in writing testing material for several local and national agencies and testing boards specifically aimed at assessing professional interpreters.

Previously, she has worked at a major hospital in Houston, TX, as an International Patient Coordinator and staff interpreter.

She has been an active member of professional organizations such as NAJIT, TAHIT, and HITA for over a decade.

Katherine Langan, Ph.D. CHI™ is a sociolinguist who has worked as a full time or occasional translator/interpreter since 1979.  She earned her Ph.D. and M.S. at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She received her initial training in translation through SIL and has worked with various combinations of Indo-European and Mayan languages including English, Spanish, Poqomam, K’iche’, Kaqchikel, Koiné Greek and French, working on religious, technical, cultural, medical, legal, and commercial documents. She has been involved in the training of interpreters and translators both in the US and Guatemala since 1979.  She has interpreted in legal, educational, medical and ecclesiastical contexts in both the U.S. and Guatemala and has also done conference interpreting.  She became an active member of the National Council of Interpreters in Heath Care she has served on the Standards and Training Committee as Chair, Vice-Chair and now as a member.  As part of the STC, she co-chairs the Languages of Limited Diffusion Work Group and the National Standards of Practice for Healthcare Interpreters Work Group.  She has researched and developed specialized training for interpreters working in speech language therapy contexts. She works as a free-lance interpreter and translator and just began teaching in the Interpreting/Translating program at Des Moines Area Community College.

David McCoy-Galicia is the director and creator of Medical Interpreting Training School (MITS). He has been an educator for more than twenty years and a medical interpreter since 2008. He has extensive experience in developing tests and curricula for ESL and interpreting courses. Throughout his teaching and interpreting career, he has interacted with thousands of people of different ages, backgrounds, and languages.

David worked as a medical interpreter in one of the most prestigious and comprehensive hospitals in the United States, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Los Angeles. While at Cedars, he conducted thousands of interpreting assignments in many medical specialties, ranging from neonatal to geriatrics. David has also provided interpreter services in the med-legal field of workers’ compensation. Such experience has given him the expert-level-knowledge to be able to teach other interpreters the art of interpreting in many different clinical and cross-cultural settings.

David obtained his certification as a medical interpreter by the National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters (NBCMI) in 2011 and the certification as a healthcare interpreter by Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI) in 2012.

Building on his solid teaching background and extensive medical interpreting expertise, in 2014, David created MITS, an online school exclusively dedicated to the teaching of medical interpreting. To date, David has trained and helped thousands of interpreters achieve their goals of qualification, certification, and recertification.

Tim Moriarty is System Manager of Interpreter & Translation Services for Baystate Health, a not for profit health system consisting of 4 hospitals, including a level I trauma center, regional cancer center, children’s hospital, and approximately 90 locations throughout Western Massachusetts.  Baystate’s department comprises 60 staff interpreters who speak English and 11 languages, hospital manager, as well as a full-time staff translations coordinator.  Tim obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Hispanic Studies and a Master’s degree in Public Administration with a concentration on Social Service and Welfare Policy from Columbia University after living in Guatemala and Panama working with street kids, handicapped children, and inner-city youth.  Tim initially became a Certified Healthcare Interpreter via CCHI in 2012.

Mutaz Al Mudaris, also known as Matt, is a nationally certified interpreter (CHI™-Arabic) and has been working at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in the language, cultural and educational support since 2012. He is also an online trainer for military interpreters and translators overseas, Licensed Medical Terminology Trainer (Cross Cultural Communications), Certified ESL and Arabic Language tutor, member of the Educational and translation committees at the Division of Language Services, former Educational Officer for the Multicultural Professionals Network (MPN), former Member of the Cultural Awareness Council, and a Safety coach all at CHOP. Mutaz, a native of Iraq, moved to the U.S with his family in 2009. In 2013 he teamed up with his mother, a Gynecologist, scientist and Professor who wrote a book about Iraq, moving to the U.S. and the positive impact the city of Philadelphia had on their family. The book, “Beyond the Sand Storm” got published in September, 2016.

Before Joining CHOP, Mutaz has worked for bodies like, Linguistic Data Consortium at Penn University, US State Dept. (Where he is on the formal roster of Interpreters), Valley Forge Military Academy and Cancer Treatment Centers of America in the U.S., Le Royal Amman Hotel as the training and development manager, United Nations, Associated Press and Red Cross in Jordan, U.S. Embassy, Baghdad Police Academy and finally Youth T.V. station in Baghdad, Iraq where he translated his first movie “Pretty Woman” starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.

He is a voting member of American Translators Association (ATA), and a member of Delaware Valley Translator’s Association (DVTA), International Medical Interpreters Association (IMIA). He Holds a Bachelor degree in Agricultural Engineering (Majoring in Plant Pathology) and currently studying a Master’s Degree in Global and International Education at Drexel University (with a major in Peace Education).  In June 2017 Mutaz traveled to the Dominican Republic as part of the Global Allies CHOP Program: Ninos Primeros en Salud where he delivered six informal health related presentations sessions, provided basic clinical support to poor communities as part of a team, and worked with local health promoters and nurses on preparing future lessons and activities. Mutaz was asked recently by CCHI to work as a SME on the development of the new content for the Arabic and E2E exams. The project ran between July 2018- June 2019. He also was invited by CCHI in 2017 to present an online webinar titled: “Accents and dialects: a thorny issue for healthcare interpreters”. Mutaz is a strong advocate for interpreters getting certified.

Johanna Parker is Lead Interpreter for Education and Training at Stanford Health Care.  She is a CERTIFIED HEALTHCARE INTERPRETER™ and Federally- and California- Certified Court Interpreter, and holds a Master’s Degree in Translation and Interpretation from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (Spanish<>English). She also works as a contract seminar interpreter for the US Department of State and a freelance conference interpreter. She teaches medical interpreting at MIIS and continuing
education workshops for medical and legal interpreters.

Gabriela Siebach is MasterWord’s Director of Business Development. Gabriela supports the Team which is tasked with exceeding service goals and customer expectations by exploring options and maintaining high standards of language access guidance and service. Gabriela has a background in translation, interpreting, and language program management, which makes her uniquely suited to provide support in ensuring that MasterWord’s customers receive quality solutions uniquely catered to their language access needs.

Active in the translator and interpreter community, Gabriela is a Certified Healthcare Interpreter (CHI™), has accumulated more than 10 years of professional experience in linguistics, and has spearheaded the development of multiple training, mentorship, and assessment programs and holds a graduate degree from the world renown Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

Laurie Swabey is Professor of Interpreting at St. Catherine University and Director of the CATIE Center where she leads two federally funded national initiatives on interpreter education. She holds a PhD from the University of Minnesota in Linguistics. She has served as a member of the advisory board for the National Council on Interpreting in Healthcare (NCIHC) and the CCHI (Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters). Publications include co-edited volumes Advances in Interpreting Research (John Benjamins) and Educating healthcare interpreters (Gallaudet University Press). In addition to several book chapters, she has also published on healthcare interpreting in a variety of journals including Interpreting: International Journal of Research and Practice, Translation and Interpreting Studies, Journal of Healthcare Quality, Journal of Interpreting, and International Journal of Interpreter Education. She has presented at numerous conferences, nationally and internationally.

Beverly Treumann works in collaboration with language access program managers at HCIN’s many member healthcare systems across the country to set and maintain standards for sharing interpreter services over an automated video and voice call routing network. She helps set protocols for video remote interpreting in the Network and develops continuing education content for HCIN Learn at http://learn.hcin.org. Prior to her work with HCIN, she worked ten years as a Spanish medical interpreter in both small clinics and large teaching medical centers and four years for a large public health plan teaching a 40-hour course on healthcare interpreting. She is a founding member of the California Healthcare Interpreting Association. She served as its President from 2001- 2005 and worked closely with the committee members who authored and disseminated the CHIA Standards. She served as a CHIA Board Member again from 2011 to 2016. She remains active in the CHIA Education Committee. Ms. Treumann’s international experience includes having worked in Mexico and Central America.