Volunteer for CCHI

For each panel of SMEs that participate in a specific test development activity, CCHI strives to ensure diversity based on a number of demographic and professional factors including:

• Geography – diversity by areas of the U.S.
• Gender
• Age
• Education
• Race and ethnicity (including country of origin for non-U.S. born SMEs in order to represent cultural diversity and regional variants of the same language which is especially important for languages spoken in many countries, such as Spanish, Arabic, etc.)
• Languages in which SMEs interpret, including various regional variants
• Language acquisition background – native speakers, non-native speakers, and heritage speakers
• Level of education specific to healthcare interpreting
• Interpreting modality –in-person, telephonic (OPI), remote video (VRI)
• Employment status and role within the healthcare industry (employee or freelancer; practicing interpreter, manager, educator, bilingual healthcare provider, translator)
• Years of experience in healthcare interpreting
• Frequency of interpreting in healthcare settings
• Practice setting – hospital, physician practice, outpatient clinic, home care, public health, health plan/insurer
• Strength in specific interpreting skills and knowledge areas
• Additional relevant experience (e.g. as court or conference interpreter, translator, healthcare professional, foreign language instructor, etc.)

SMEs may participate in more than one panel so that they can help inform new SMEs of the prior work and answer any questions that may arise. However, CCHI strives to have about two-thirds of panelists for each activity or project to be new or not involved in other test development activities or projects to allow for a broader representation of the profession.

All CCHI’s SMEs must meet the following minimum required prerequisites:

• Minimum age of 18 years
• At least one year of experience working as a healthcare interpreter* as one of the following:
  • Staff – working in a full- or part-time (minimum .5 FTE) position (at a healthcare facility/provider or a language services agency)
  • Freelance – the majority of interpreting work must be healthcare-related

(*This requirement may be waived by CCHI’s TDSC for SMEs representing stakeholders who are not practicing interpreters, e.g. supervisors, university faculty members, interpreters certified in other specialties such as court interpreting, healthcare providers, and regulators, whose expertise is important for the validity and quality of the examination.)

• If a practicing healthcare interpreter – be a CoreCHI™ certificant**, or – for languages in which the CHI™ certification exists – be a CHI™ certificant**

(**This requirement may be waived by CCHI’s TDSC for projects/activities not related to item writing, reviewing or rating if such waiver contributes to the panel diversity or enhances the scope of the project/activity. If the SME is a practicing interpreter of another specialty, such as court interpreting, the SME must have a minimal certification existing for that specialty in their language.)

• Have a minimum of U.S. high school diploma (or GED) or its equivalent from another country.  (A bachelor-level degree is preferred.)
• Have at least 40 hours of healthcare interpreter training. (A college-level specialization in healthcare interpreting is preferred.)
• Have linguistic proficiency in English and the language of interpreting at the professional level.
• Cannot be a CCHI Commissioner at the time of the project/activity.
• Not currently involved in educational programs of healthcare interpreters leading to initial certification (or expected to be involved throughout the term of engagement with CCHI as an SME). CCHI recognizes that the pool of SMEs in certain languages is limited, therefore, TDSC may modify this requirement as follows: If the SME is involved in educational programs of healthcare interpreters leading to initial certification during the SME engagement with CCHI or any time afterwards, the SME must agree not to utilize information received as an SME to adapt an educational program to help candidates prepare for CCHI’s examination.

CCHI is looking for volunteer SMEs to participate in this project in the fall of 2023:

Development of new content for the CHI™-Arabic exam: Aug 25 – Nov 15, 2023

The work will take place via Zoom (see details below). Please fill out the application below and submit it by August 14, 2023.

CCHI will provide all the necessary orientation and training via online collaboration tools. All tasks will also be performed remotely via video conference calls and other online applications. Please read about the commitment below so that you understand the scope of work.

Who should apply?

Our goal is to convene a diverse panel of SMEs, certified CHI™-Arabic interpreters, who represent healthcare interpreters in the U.S. in a comprehensive manner. We are looking for volunteers – practicing interpreters who have CHI™-Arabic certification (this requirement is mandatory) – who:

• have various years of experience – from 0 to 10+
• work in different modalities and different healthcare settings
• represent different regional varieties of Arabic
• may also be managers (with previous practicing interpreter experience)
• cannot be trainers of introductory interpreter courses (but may be trainers of continuing education courses)

If you have submitted an SME application in 2022-2023, please email us at [email protected] and tell us that you are interested in this project. We may waive the requirement to submit an application again.

What are your commitments (if selected)?

• Sign CCHI’s Confidentiality and Content Security Agreements. (Review our SME Participation Policies prior to applying.)
• Live participation in 8 meetings (two hours each) and independent work

1. Be able to complete a self-paced online orientation module in Aug 25-Sep 8, which would require approximately 2-4 hours of time.

2. Be available for 8 Zoom video conference meetings, of 2-hour duration each either on Saturday mornings (10:30 – 12:30 am ET) on these dates:

September 9, 16, 23, 30
October 7, 14
November 4, 11

3. Be available for independent remote assignments in between the meetings.

This is a volunteer project. CCHI will not pay any honorarium for participation in this project. However, CCHI will grant 6 PB CE instructional and 2 CE non-instructional hours for participation, and issue a voucher of $150 value that can be applied towards the certification renewal fee.

Send your complete SME application (download by clicking on the button below) and full resume to [email protected] by August 14, 2023. You will be notified if you are selected to participate in this project by August 24, 2023.

If you have any questions about this project or about the SME application, contact us at [email protected].

Thank you for your interest and support!

CCHI is currently seeking nominations for 3 Commissioner positions for the term of Oct 2023-Oct 2026:

• Commissioner – 2 vacancies
• Commissioner, Public Member – 1 vacancy

Commissioner nominees must represent a stakeholder group of the healthcare interpreting profession, healthcare interpreting industry, or field of language access to health care.

Public Member nominees should be a consumer or potential consumer of the certificants’ skills or services. They may be a member of a community of patients with LEP or have experience in the field of advocacy for language access for patients with LEP.

Before nominating, please review the expectations of the CCHI Commissioner and the criteria for selecting Commissioners. Also please read CCHI Policies for Commissioners at http://cchi.prolificdigital.io/uploads/CCHI_Policies_for_Commissioners.pdf.

You may nominate yourself or someone else. If you nominate someone, prior to submission of the nomination, that individual must agree to the nomination and to serve for a term of three (3) years.

Nominations must be submitted on the Nomination Form (click the button below to download) as an attachment via email with the subject “CCHI Commissioner nomination” by 8pm EDT on August 9, 2023 to [email protected].

CCHI is looking for experienced, CoreCHI-Performance certified interpreters, with the prior experience as CCHI SME, for three (3) positions of raters of the ETOE™ performance exam.

Applications are due by August 19, 2023. Hired applicants are expected to start virtual on-the-job training on August 30, 2023.

Rater is a telecommuting employee position at CCHI that requires the rater to utilize their own computer (or laptop) and broadband internet connection. Rater is responsible for grading the audio responses of CCHI candidates by applying CCHI-defined rubrics in a consistent and unbiased manner and maintaining their knowledge of CCHI rating process by attending rater training sessions.

Required Qualifications

• Hold the CoreCHI-Performance™ certification
• At least five years of experience working as a healthcare interpreter as one of the following:
• Staff – working in a full- or part-time (minimum .5 FTE) position (at a healthcare facility/provider or working for a language services agency)
• Freelance – the majority of interpreting work must be healthcare-relatedAbsence of conflict of interest (see the COI Policy at https://cchi.prolificdigital.io/uploads/CCHI-Policies-Advisors-SMEs-Volunteers.pdf)
• High School diploma or its equivalent
• Excellent verbal and written communication, and interpersonal skills
• Ability to work independently and efficiently
• High attention to details and good organizational skills
• Excellent computer skills in: Chrome browser, MS Word, email communication, any virtual meeting platform

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience as CCHI’s Subject Matter Expert (SME)
• Work experience in evaluating interpreter performance, teaching a foreign language or English, or editing/reviewing translations
• Bachelor’s degree in interpreting/translation, foreign language, English, education, or communications-related area

Please read the full job description – click here – before applying.

Send your full resume, cover letter, and the SME Application (see below) by August 19, 2023 to [email protected]. We’ll get back to selected applicants to schedule an interview. Applications without a cover letter or SME application will not be considered. Interviews will be held via Zoom.