Summit Program

Summit Organizers

Barry S. Olsen -Co-President, InterpretAmerica

Barry Slaughter Olsen is a veteran conference interpreter and technophile with over two decades of experience interpreting, training interpreters and organizing language services. He is an associate professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), the founder and co-president of InterpretAmerica, and General Manager of Multilingual Operations at ZipDX. He is a member of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC). For updates on interpreting, technology and training, follow him on Twitter @ProfessorOlsen.  You can learn more about his work by clicking here.

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Katharine Allen - Co-President, InterpretAmerica

Katharine Allen 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 helped embed professional interpreting into medical missions in Mexico. She teaches for the Glendon College Masters in Conference Interpreting and The Professional Interpreter Online. 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.

Panel Presenters 

Claudia Brauer - Brauer Training

Claudia Brauer has worked as an interpreter, translator and trainer for 40 years. She is a Sworn-Certified, English/Spanish linguist in Latin America and the United States. She has worked as a trainer of translators and interpreters for seven years and has created more than 250 hours of proprietary content that has been delivered to over 3000 individuals. In 2011, Claudia created some of the first OPI and VRI trainings made available to interpreters generally. Since then she has created additional sessions addressing multiple levels of complexity in remote interpreting and related issues for 21st-century interpreters. Claudia is currently working on Training of Trainer courses on remote interpreting, to be completed in 2018.

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Bryan Forrester - CEO of Boostlingo

 Bryan is the Chief Executive Officer of Boostlingo. Bryan has 15 years of executive experience building several technology startups from the ground up. In 2015 Bryan Co-Founded Boostlingo with the aim of driving innovation into the language interpreting industry. Bryan believes that technology can help interpreters and language agencies make more money, drive operational efficiency and achieve higher gross margins. Prior to co-founding Boostlingo, Bryan served as President and General Manager of Anchor Software before it was sold to eFolder Systems in 2013.

Marc Gershuny - TeamPeople

Marc Gershuny is General Manager for TeamPeople at the World Bank in Washington DC, overseeing a managed service that provides over 40 AV technicians, engineers, installers, producers, editors, photographers, supervisors and administrative staff in support of the organization’s conference operations and infrastructure. He also acts as in-house consultant on technology upgrades, audio visual design and integration. Marc is considered a subject matter expert on multinational conference workflow, live sound production, and simultaneous interpretation. Marc spent 15 years as the United Nation’s Broadcast and Conference Operation Supervisor as well as AV project manager for the UN’s recent $2 billion renovation. He also worked for Madison Square Garden Network as SAP audio engineer for the New York Yankees, Knicks, Rangers and Giants. Marc has been a professional musician for over 35 years and currently performs live with his 15 year old daughter.

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Lorena Ortiz Schneider - California Workers Compensation Interpreters Association

Lorena Ortiz Schneider is a professional interpreter and translator, and owner of Ortiz Schneider Interpreting & Translation, Inc. on the Central Coast of California. She is an American Translators Association Certified Translator and California State Certified Administrative Hearing Interpreter, has worked for the US Department of State as an Escort and Seminar Interpreter, and as a Conference Interpreter for private industry and community-based programs. She is the current ATA Interpreter Division Assistant Administrator and Blog Editor. Lorena sits on the Board of Directors of the California Workers Compensation Interpreters Association (CWCIA), and actively advocates for interpreters on issues affecting the workers’ compensation arena. Lorena earned her BA at UC Santa Barbara and MA from the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Translation and Conference Interpreting.

Donald Tait - Interpretation Service of the European Commission (SCIC)

Donald Tait has worked in the Interpretation Service (SCIC) of the European Commission in Brussels since 2011.  He is currently the Deputy Head of the Interpretation Programming Unit, and was previously the head of the sector responsible for the recruitment of freelance interpreters.  SCIC delivers around 100 000 interpreting days per year in Brussels and across the world in over 40 languages.  One of his responsibilities is to manage the teams that regularly provide remote interpretation for high level meetings of European Heads of State and Government in Brussels.

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Angelica Villagran - Stanford Healthcare

Angelica was born and Raised in Mexico City where she got her accounting degree from De La Salle University. Following her heart, she became an ESL teacher and then an Administrator at Universidad Motolinia. Angelica started working at Stanford Healthcare In 2007 as a Spanish Interpreter. She was awarded the CHIA Interpreter of the Year Award in 2011.  She then became the VMI Coordinator and is now the VMI Supervisor. Under her leadership, the VMI program has grown tremendously. It is now installed in 1,300+ units across Stanford Clinics all over California. Angelica provides training to interpreters and end users. She also coordinates deployment of VMI and is the liaison between IT and Administrators.

Onsite Workgroup Moderators

Laura Burian - Associate Professor, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey

Laura Burian is Associate Professor of simultaneous and consecutive interpretation of Chinese and English at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.  She has worked as an in-house translator, interpreter, and legal assistant in the Beijing office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and freelanced as both a translator and interpreter in the US, mainland China, and Taiwan. Laura has worked behind the scenes as an interpreter for a number of high-level meetings between the US and People’s Republic of China. Her most recent assignment to be caught on camera was in March 2014, when she served as interpreter for First Lady Michele Obama for a 6-day state visit to China.

Jaime Fatás-Cabeza - Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters

Jaime Fatás-Cabeza is associate professor of the practice and director of the undergraduate degree program in healthcare and legal interpreting and translation at the Spanish and Portuguese Department at the University of Arizona. He is certified (Eng/Spa) by the United States Courts, the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI), and the American Translators Association. Jaime has been a staff interpreter with the Trial Court of Massachusetts, supervisor of interpreting services at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a translator and interpreter for Spanish and Mexican consular offices. He is on the Board of Directors of the NCIHC and a commissioner with CCHI.

Natalya Mytareva - Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI)

Natalya Mytareva, M.A., CoreCHI™, is Executive Director of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI) and one of its founding Commissioners. In 2000-2013, Natalya was Communications Director at the International Institute of Akron, a non-profit refugee resettlement agency in Ohio. She developed and taught several courses for healthcare and court interpreters, with the focus on languages of lesser diffusion. Natalya is a Russian interpreter/translator, and started her career as instructor of interpretation/translation courses at Volgograd State University (Russia) in 1991. She holds a combined BA/MA degree from VSU in Philology & Teaching English as a Foreign Language.

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Dr. Bill Rivers - Executive Director, Joint National Committee for Languages 

Dr. Bill Rivers serves as the Executive Director of the Joint National Committee for Languages, representing more than 135 organizations from all sectors of the Language Enterprise in Washington, DC. A long-time researcher, strategic planner, and business leader, he advocates for language with the US Government and the business community. Dr. Rivers has over 25 years of experience in culture and language for economic development and national security, with expertise in research, assessment, program evaluation, and policy development and advocacy. During his career, Dr. Rivers has also taught Russian at the University ofMaryland, worked as a freelance interpreter and translator, and conducted field work in Kazakhstan, where he regularly returns to teach at several universities. Having received his Ph.D. in Russian, Dr. Rivers has lived and worked in more than 20 countries.

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Dieter Runge - Boostlingo

Dieter has been in the language services and language technology industry since 2001 and has worked in a number of different roles in development, operations, sales and marketing with number of LSPs across the US and the Asia-Pacific region over the past 15 years. Most recently Dieter has joined as a co-founder at San Francisco based technology start-up Boostlingo. Boostlingo develops cost effective software solutions for LSP’s and interpretation companies and has released the next generation interpretation deployment platform for on-demand Over-the-Phone and Video Remote interpretation delivery and for onsite interpreter scheduling and management.

Online Workgroup Moderators

Soraya Alamdari-Healthcare Interpreter Trainer

Soraya Alamdari, Ph.D., CMI-Spanish, is a freelance healthcare interpreter and trainer from Los Angeles, California. She teaches medical interpreting using different delivery platforms, from an in person 40-hour program with InterpreterEd to an online program for the Medical Interpreting Certificate Award program at California State University, Fresno. She also served as program coordinator and lead instructor for the Medical Interpreter Certificate Program at California State University, Los Angeles. Soraya holds an MA and a Ph.D. in Hispanic Languages and Literatures from UCLA.

Maha El-Metwally - Conference Interpreter

Maha El-Metwally is a conference interpreter who works for a wide range of international organizations, including the European Institutions and the United Nations. She is a member of AIIC, The Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIoL) and the American Translators Association (ATA). She is also a Board member and member of the Admissions Committee of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI). Maha’s most recent degree is an MA in interpreter training from the University of Geneva. She is associated with a number of universities both in the UK and abroad where she offers training and professionalization talks. She also teaches conference interpreting at the University of Surrey.

Laura Vaughn Holcomb - Interpreter, Trainer and Curriculum Developer

Laura Vaughn Holcomb is an interpreter trainer, curriculum developer, training technology consultant, and English retour language coach. Laura holds a Master of Conference Interpreting from Glendon College where she currently serves as an adjunct professor of the Virtual Healthcare Interpreting Practicum and launched CoLAB Toronto, an affordable, peer-driven conference interpreting practice intensive. In 2017, Laura directed Mexico’s first nationwide survey of T&I professionals

 on behalf of the Italia Morayta Foundation and InterpretAmerica. More at: String & Can Language Consulting

Gio Lester - Interpreter and Trainer

Gio Lester has been a translator and interpreter since 1980. Along the way she has taught English, Portuguese (Florida International University, USA) and Legal Translation (Brasillis Idiomas, Brazil), help in the development of the first Interpreting Course at the University of the Bahamas, Nassau, Bahamas. She has served the ATA as a volunteer in many capacities, is a member of the Miami-Dade College T&I Advisory Council, Co-Chair of NAJTI’s PR Committee, Editor of The NAJIT Observer, and an international conference interpreter and translator. Gio successfully held a fully digital event, which included Remote Simultaneous Interpreting, on August 2017. This is her third collaboration with InterpretAmerica.

Anne Marx - California Judicial Council's Court Interpreters Program

Anne Marx is a Senior Analyst with the California Judicial Council’s Court Interpreters Program. She is the lead staff for the Court Interpreter Advisory Panel’s Language Access subcommittee. Anne is a co-author of California's Recommended Guidelines for Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) for ASL-Interpreted Events and of Recommended Guidelines on the Use of Deaf Intermediary Interpreters in the Courts. She led California's first effort to introduce VRI to the courts and continues to consult on the upcoming spoken language pilot. She served as lead staff to the Joint Working Group for California’s Language Access Plan technology subcommittee and continues to participate as staff for the Language Access Plan Implementation Task Force technology subcommittee. Anne is a member of the California Bar and is a Fulbright Scholar. She has spent time living and studying abroad in Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Israel. Anne.Marx@jud.ca.gov

 Anne.Marx@jud.ca.gov

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Cynthia E. Roat, MPH

Cynthia E. Roat is widely considered one of healthcare interpreting’s pioneers. Over the past 25 years, Ms. Roat has made significant contributions to the field as an interpreter, teacher, consultant, organizer, researcher, mentor and author. Her most recent book, Healthcare Interpreting in Small Bites, is being adopted as an ancillary text in many interpreter training programs. She is a founding member and former board chair of the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care, a founding member of WASCLA, and current chair of NOTIS’ Community Interpreter Division. She is known nationally as an engaging speaker, a knowledgeable resource, and an energetic advocate for language access in general.

Summit Report Author

Tracy Young - Barton Memorial Hospital

Tracy Young is a registered nurse and an accomplished medical interpreter (CMI). She is an interpreter trainer, presenter, and long-time advocate for the profession. Tracy has given a variety of workshops across the United States, and most recently in Spain. Tracy is the Language Access Services coordinator at Barton Memorial Hospital in South Lake Tahoe, California.  She holds a master’s degree in Spanish from the University of Nevada, Reno and is the founding president of the Nevada Interpreters and Translators Association.