Welcoming Two New Commissioners!

CCHI is honored to welcome two new Commissioners to  start their three-year term on our Board this month: H. Valerie Huang and Francisco J. Martinez.

Valerie Huang, MA, CHI™, is Interpreter Service Program Manager at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, OH. She 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.

Francisco Martinez, MA, CHI™, 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.