Setting the Standard for Quality in Healthcare Interpreting

Margarita Bekker was born in Leningrad, Russia. In 1989, upon graduating from nursing school, she immigrated to the United States and continued her education at UC Berkeley, studying Slavic Languages and Literature. As a freelance Russian interpreter, Margarita worked with diverse populations ranging from political refugees to Russian musicians. Since 2002 she has been working at Stanford University Medical Center. She holds the position of Lead Interpreter, Education and Training. This job allows her to use her education in healthcare and literature to actively serve the Russian community. Margarita mentors interns, and participates in testing and training programs for interpreters and healthcare providers. Margarita is a certified Bridging the Gap Trainer. She also taught Russian students in her capacity as Russian Language Coach at the City College of San Francisco HCI program for several years. In 2012, she became a curriculum developer for Glendon School of Translation at York University, Toronto, Canada. She developed and then taught two Healthcare Interpreting Courses (Russian) for Glendon’s innovative master level distance learning program. Margarita is a former President of the California Healthcare Interpreting Association as well as a former Chairperson of the CHIA Conference Committee. Margarita was awarded the Interpreter of the Year award by CHIA in 2016.

Vonessa Costa is director of Multicultural Affairs and Patient Services at Cambridge Health Alliance, named “Best in Class for Delivering Culturally and Linguistically Competent Patient Care throughout the Organization” by the Institute for Diversity in Health Management (2010). Vonessa co-leads CHA’s language access initiatives and one of the largest hospital-based interpreter programs in New England, honored with a 2014 Amerinet Healthcare Achievement Award for technological advances that have enhanced institutional capacity to care for a diverse patient population that is 43% limited English proficient.  Prior to her current position, Vonessa was director of the Cross Cultural Communication Institute at CCCS, Inc., where she specialized in interpreter education and provider training in intercultural communication. Vonessa is a CoreCHI™ practitioner credentialed by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters. She is secretary of the Forum on the Coordination of Interpreter Services (FOCIS) and a member of the America’s Essential Hospitals Education Committee. Vonessa is a graduate of the America’s Essential Hospitals Fellows Program, and a 2019 MassAHEC Tony Windsor Award recipient for advocacy in language access and the professionalization of healthcare interpreters.

Jaime Fatás-Cabeza is the director of the undergraduate degree program in healthcare and legal translation and interpretation at the University of Arizona. He is a United States Court Certified Interpreter (USCCI, English/Spanish), a Certified Healthcare Interpreter™-Spanish, and has been a certified translator by the American Translators Association (ATA). Jaime was a staff judicial interpreter with the Trial Court of Massachusetts, president of the Judicial Interpreters of Massachusetts, Operations Supervisor of Interpreting Services at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and official translator and interpreter for Spanish and Mexican consular offices. He is a conference interpreter. Jaime has taught Translation and Interpretation at the School for Professional Studies at Boston University and at Bentley College, MA; Music and Spanish Language and Culture at Tufts University and the University of Massachusetts/ Boston, as well as in Spanish educational institutions. His professional experience includes stints as staff translator and editor for school and college divisions at Houghton Mifflin Publishing Co., Prentice Hall, and Simon and Schuster. He has recently designed a bilingual assessment (English/Spanish) protocol and training course for dual-role healthcare professionals. Jaime is an elected member of the Board of Directors of the National Council for Interpreting and Healthcare (NCIHC) and a member of the Trainers of Trainers Committee of NCIHC.

Dylanna Grasinger has spent nearly two decades working to advance the rights of refugees and immigrants throughout the Midwest – becoming an expert in the field of refugee resettlement. Prior to becoming the agency Director at the International Institute of Erie in April 2012, Dylanna spent her time in both Pittsburgh, PA and Akron, OH in the non-profit world. Everywhere she has been, she has devoted her time and energy to developing strong client-centered programming and long-term community partners. Passionate about teaching, Dylanna has also spent over five years in the classroom teaching a myriad of courses to English Language Learners both domestically and internationally. Dylanna earned her B.A. in English from Kent State University, where she also received her certification in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL). She has her Master of Science in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution from Creighton University. She has lived and worked in Turkey and Germany. When not at work she loves to ride her bicycle and spend time with her dogs.

Valerie Huang joined Nationwide Children’s Hospital as a Language Services program manager in 2011. Originally from Taiwan, Valerie holds a B. A. in International Business and M.A. in Human Resource Development. She later completed a 2-year Alternative Licensure Program for Foreign Language Education, and found her passion in heritage language teaching and interpreter education. During her career, Valerie has been involved in the development of interpreter training curriculum and capacity building projects focused on grassroots leadership and workforce development. In addition, Valerie has extensive experience in developing and presenting programs on cultural competency and cultural sensitivity care; she has worked with healthcare and social service providers to incorporate cultural understanding into their practice. Because of her drive and dedication to serve the community, Valerie received the Community Action Award from the Ohio Commission of Minority Health in 2017. Prior to Nationwide Children’s Hospital, she served as the program director for Asian American Community Services, and was an international staff administrator for Citibank in Taiwan. As a Certified Healthcare Interpreter™ and trainer of healthcare and community interpreters, she speaks widely at conferences across Ohio and the U.S. and is a frequent contributor for community social service projects in central Ohio.

Mina Kini, as the System Director for SSM Health, leads the work in crafting a culture valuing Diversity and Inclusion. In this newly created system level role at the SSM Health, Mina is responsible for advancing the diversity and inclusion efforts by developing, implementing, managing and evaluating all aspects of the strategy for SSM Health’s four regions and ministries in Missouri, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Southern Illinois.
Mina worked in various sectors of higher education, community building, human service organizations, and social science research. In her recent position as Senior Director in Texas Health’s Population Health, Innovation and Education Center at Texas Health Resources (Dallas/Fort Worth, TX), she was instrumental in shaping the cultural competence strategy, design and operations for patient and community centric healthcare and wellbeing.
She currently serves as a Commissioner of the national Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters. In addition, she also is active and has served on multiple boards and coalitions in North Texas. With over 25 years of professional experience in international and US settings, Mina holds two Masters Degrees – one in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, India and the other in Organizational Development & strategy from Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. In addition, she is a Fellow of the American Hospital Association’s, Cultural Competence Leadership Program and has completed the Disparities Leadership Fellowship, a year-long executive education program of the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Disparities Solutions Center. Mina is fluent in Hindi, Marathi and Konkani, the languages of India.

Eliana is a native speaker of English and Portuguese. Born in Brazil, Eliana obtained her master’s degree in Bilingual Education from Brown University, where she taught Portuguese as a Teaching Fellow. She received a Fulbright Grant to conduct research in Brazil. She moved to Seattle in 2005, after 19 years in New York City, where she worked as a Spanish/Portuguese Translation Supervisor for Chadbourne & Parke, and as a Special Assistant within Citigroup’s Latin America Securities Services Division. An experienced court and medical interpreter, Eliana is a WA state registered court interpreter, a WA state authorized medical interpreter, a certified Trainer of medical interpreters, and a CoreCHI™ healthcare interpreter. She has partnered with the Washington state Dept. of Social and Health Services (DSHS) to deliver quality online test preparation and free training in medical interpreter ethics and standards of practice for all candidates preparing for the state certification exam. Prior to founding her own company, Eliana was National Director of Interpreter Quality & Education at InDemand Interpreting, and Supervisor and Trainer of Interpreter Services at Harborview Medical Center, a regional trauma center and teaching hospital, with 49 staff interpreters providing service in 23 languages. A member of NCIHC, IMIA and CHIA and a regular presenter at their conferences, Eliana is a member of NCIHC’s “Home for Trainers” workgroup, hosting webinars every other month for medical interpreter trainers, winning the ProZ 2014 Community Choice Award, for “Best Training Series” http://www.proz.com/community-choice-awards.

Francisco Martinez, born in Mexico City, raised in San Luis Potosí, joined Children’s Mercy Kansas City as a staff medical interpreter in 2014. His position now is a Medical and Culture Language Coach who works with bilingual residents to ensure that encounters with Spanish speaking families are safe and free of misunderstandings, and to improve residents’ communicative skills, and understanding of Spanish-speaking patients’ cultural beliefs. At the beginning of his career, Francisco worked in the hospitality industry, run a school of English as a foreign language (EFL), and a translation/interpretation firm.  He did technical translations, conference and business interpreting, and video dubbing for companies such as Cummins Engines, Aceros San Luis, Mexinox, Cigarrera la Moderna, and the Secretaria de Comercio Exterior among others. In the ‘90s, Francisco worked for Richmond Publishing, the EFL/ESL branch of Santillana Editores, supervised and trained new EFL instructors, and taught TOEFL preparation courses at Instituto Angloamericano in Leon, Guanajuato, and was the Academic Chair of Instituto De La Salle de Leon, from kindergarden to High School. In 2001-2013, he was a visiting lecturer of Spanish at Northwest Missouri State University, faculty at their Spanish study-abroad program, and was the interim chair of the Foreign Language Program. Francisco is a strong advocate for high quality language access to health care for all as well for the exploration and creation of new roles for the professional, certified healthcare interpreters.

Idolly Fajardo Oliva is originally from Guatemala. She has over a decade of experience in healthcare interpreting, as a trainer/educator, administrator, vendor management, and large scale language services operations. Currently, as the Director of Language Services at Fairview Health, Idolly leads the strategic direction and operations of Language Services across an integrated system combining Fairview and HealthEast. Together both systems make up the 3rd largest employer in the State of Minnesota.
Idolly is committed to national healthcare interpreting certification as she truly believes certification help ensure compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, ADA, Joint Commission, Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act-Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities, and other regulatory requirements for providing language access. Idolly holds an undergraduate degree in international business and a master’s degree in business administration.

Erin Rosales is Director of Interpreter Development for Connecting Cultures, Inc. She has a B.A. in Spanish and Ministry from Viterbo College. She holds a Certified Professional in Learning and Performance® designation from the Association for Talent Development. She is a member of the Standards and Training Committee of the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care and is co-lead for the Home for Trainers – Webinars Work Group. She is a member of the American Translators Association. Since 2003 Erin has been dedicated to actively interpreting in the healthcare field, designing training programs for healthcare interpreters, training interpreters, and developing interpreter trainers. She has a particular interest in workplace learning and performance and in integrating ongoing professional development into the professional practice of healthcare interpreters. She is a regular contributor to the Connecting Cultures blog and is a fan of using social media, especially Twitter (@RosalesErin), to learn from professionals across a variety of fields, to discover and share valuable professional development resources, and to enjoy a bit of whimsy on occasion.

Mateo Rutherford has worked for the Interpreting Services Department at UCSF Health since 2012 as a Supervisor, Administrative Director and Project Manager. UCSF has over 200,000 LEP patient visits in over 80 languages per year and offers patients and providers a mixed service model, including telephone, video and on-site interpreting services. UCSF Health now requires all per diem contract interpreters to be nationally certified and complete a full-day of shadowing in an effort to insure and enhance the quality of their language services. Mateo holds a Master’s Degree in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master’s Degree in Spanish Interpretation and Translation from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He has worked as a freelance Spanish interpreter since 1987 throughout Latin America, Europe, Asia and the United States. He specializes in topics related to the life sciences and technology. Previously he worked as a bilingual disease prevention trainer under contract with the CDC throughout the US, Puerto Rico and Honduras and currently conducts trainings for healthcare interpreters through California Healthcare Interpreting Association (CHIA) and other organizations. Mateo is also a founding member of the University of California Medical Interpreting Consortium, including UCSF, UCLA, UC Davis, UC Irvine and UC San Diego Interpreting Services Departments. He serves on the Education Board of CHIA and is a CERTIFIED HEALTHCARE INTERPRETER™.

E. Zoe Schutzman grew up in Seville (Spain) and moved to Connecticut where she completed her BA in East Asian Studies and Architectural Design at Wesleyan University. She received her MA in Linguistics from the CUNY Graduate School and pursued Translation and Interpretation Studies at Hunter College (in New York). Thereafter, she became a NYS Certified Spanish Court Interpreter and a Nationally Certified Healthcare Interpreter (CHI™). She is a licensed trainer for The Community Interpreter International (TCII), Medical Terminology for Interpreters (MT), Interpreting for Pediatric Genetics (IPG), and The Interpreter Trainer Online (ITO). Zoe is Co-founder and CEO at Cloud 18 Productions Inc., an international technology-driven creative enterprise.

A seasoned linguist, Zoe has taught at institutions of higher education and trained individuals to become qualified medical interpreters. She has developed and enhanced curricula, assessment and quality assurance protocols, and she has provided linguistic and culturally appropriate expertise to varied research endeavors. Her contributions (published and otherwise) have encompassed meaningful access to healthcare for limited English proficient and languages of lesser diffusion communities; sociolinguistic, language acquisition, language documentation, and performance projects; analyses of internal and national regulatory policies; and the development, trans-creation, translation of literary, research, outreach, and educational materials.

Since joining the University of New Mexico Hospitals (UNMH) (Albuquerque, NM), Zoe has elevated training and competency assessment standards for staff and dual role medical interpreters alike. She has mentored interpreters (ASL, Arabic, Farsi/Dari, Hindi, Mandarin Chinese, Navajo, Romanian, Spanish, Swahili, Vietnamese, etc.) and propelled new avenues for professional development. Furthermore, she has cultivated system-wide regulatory adherence, process improvement, and partnerships with key institutional and community stakeholders. Prior to UNMH, Zoe worked for four fruitful years alongside Javier González at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Immigrant Health & Cancer Disparities Service (IHCD).

Jorge U. Ungo has dedicated his career to providing high quality language access services in health care. As the director of an international interpreting program, Jorge was responsible for all business operations including the development of specialized training programs and quality assurance processes. Today, Jorge is a Strategic Healthcare Account Executive for LanguageLine Solutions – a global leader in healthcare interpreting. In addition to his work with renowned language services providers, Jorge has served as President of the Texas Association of Healthcare Interpreters and Translators (TAHIT) and as a board member of the National Council on Interpreting in Healthcare (NCIHC). Additionally, Jorge has served on the boards of the Houston Interpreters and Translators Association (HITA), the Texas Alliance for Patient Services (TAPS), and Encuentro Latino. Jorge was also the founding acting administrator of the American Translators Association Medical Division (ATA-MD).