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NCIHC Founders Page
How It Began
by Cynthia Roat, Founding Member
In June 1994, a small group of healthcare interpreters, program planners, trainers, and health care providers from around the U.S. and Canada met in Seattle, WA at a conference organized by the Cross Cultural Health Care Program and the Society of Medical Interpreters, funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. They had several goals:
1. to clarify the issues involved in improving interpretation services in health care settings.
2. to share experiences with and approaches to interpreting and the training of interpreters.
3. to lay the groundwork for the establishment of national standards of practice for medical interpreters.
4. to set an agenda for national debate around medical interpreter issues.
There were 28 participants in the conference, all of whom had connections to the field of medical interpreting. Despite a broad agenda, the role of the interpreter emerged as an issue of such apparent disagreement that it became the central focus of the conference. After two days, the participants were in clear agreement on only one thing: the need to continue the dialogue in a formal way and to continue to work together. The National Working Group on Interpreting in Health Care was officially formed.
A portion of this group met again briefly in June 1995 after the First International Conference on Community Interpreting (aka Critical Link), held outside Toronto, Canada. In May 1997, a more inclusive group of about 50 met again in Boston before the first National Conference on Health Care Interpreting organized by the Massachusetts Medical Interpreters Association.
The Working Group met again in Seattle in May 1998, preceding the Second Critical Link conference in Vancouver, BC., again sponsored by the Cross Cultural Health Care Program (with continued support from W. K. Kellogg Foundation) and the Society of Medical Interpreters (SOMI), with contributions from the Educational Development Center, Inc. At the end of this meeting, the group voted to formalize itself to a greater degree, and The National Council for Interpretation in Health Care was born.
Many people participated in these initial meetings of the National Working Group, laying the foundation for both the National Council and the field of Healthcare Interpreting. (CLICK HERE for a more comprehensive history of these early meetings.) Below are those who participated in either the first meeting in 1994 or the last in 1998.
Founders Members of the
National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC)
 Dr Maria Paz Beltran Avery
Click here to read Dr. Maria Paz Beltran Avery's Biography
Click here to view her interview from the 25th Anniversary Celebration
 Eduardo Berinstein
Click here to read Eduardo Berinstein's Biography
Click here to view the Founders Panel session from the 25th Anniversary Celebration
Shiva Bidar-Sielaff
Click here to read Shiva Bidar-Sielaff's Biography
Click here to view her interview from the 25th Anniversary Celebration
Dr. Cornelia Brown
Click here to read Dr Cornelia Brown's Biography
Click here to view her interview from the 25th Anniversary Celebration
Dr. Bruce T. Downing
Click here to read Dr. Bruce Downing's Biography
Click here to view his interview from the 25th Anniversary Celebration
 Dr. Julia Puebla Fortier
Click here to read Dr. Julia Puebla Fortier's Biography
Click here to view her interview from the 25th Anniversary Celebration
 Danyune Geertsen
Click here to read Danyune Geertsen's Biography
 Dr. Eric J. Hardt
Click here to read Dr. Eric J. Hardt's Biography
Click here to view his interview from the 25th Anniversary Celebration
 Dr. Carey Jackson
Click here to read Dr. Carey Jackson's Biography
Click here to view his interview from the 25th Anniversary Celebration
 Dr. Joseph Kaufert
Click here to read Dr. Joseph Kaufert's Biography
Click here to view his interview from the 25th Anniversary Celebration
 Jane Crandall Kontrimas
Click here to read Jane Crandall Kontrimas's Biography
Click here to view her interview from the 25th Anniversary Celebration
 Priscilla Mendenhall
Click here to read Priscilla Mendenhall's Biography
Click here to view her interview from the 25th Anniversary Celebration
 Maria Michalczyk
Click here to read Maria Michalczyk's Biography
Click here to view her interview from the 25th Anniversary Celebration
 Thu-Van Nguyen
Click here to read Thu-Van Nguyen's Biography
 Martine Pierre-Louis
Click here to read Martine Pierre-Louis's Biography
Click here to view her interview from the 25th Anniversary Celebration
 Dr. Bob Putsch
Click here to read Dr. Bob Putsch's Biography
Click here to view his interview from the 25th Anniversary Celebration
 Cynthia Roat
Click here to read Cynthia Roat's Biography
Click here to view her interview from the 25th Anniversary Celebration
 Ira SenGupta
Click here to read Ira SenGupta's Biography
Click here to view her interview from the 25th Anniversary Celebration
Additional Founders
Margarita Battle, Manager of Interpreter Services, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
Tom Bruce, W.K.Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek, MI
Caroline J. Chang, Regional Manager, US Dept of Health & Human Svcs, Office for Civil Rights, Region I, Boston
Chanchoy Chao, Laotian interpreter, Asian Counseling and Referral Services, Seattle
Francis Cheng, Staff Attorney, National Health Law Program, Washington DC
Ri De Ridder, Counselor to the Minister of Public Health, Belgium
Hoai Do, Patient Care Coordinator, International Medicine Clinic, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA
Maria Durham, Manager of Interpreter Services, University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Boston
Francesca Gany, MD, Director, New York Task Force on Immigrant Health, New York
Linda Haffner, Manager of Interpreter Services, Stanford Medical Center, Palo Alto, CA
James Hak Heng, Cambodian Interpreter, PacMed Medical Center, Seattle, WA
Sally Kohn, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton, NJ
Margaret LaVallée, Ojibwa Interpreter, University of Manitoba Medical Center, Manitoba, Canada
Linda Okahara, Director, Asian Health Services, Oakland, CA
Andy Pascua, Yakima County Courts, Yakima, WA
Sherry Riddick, Director, Community Interpreter Services (CIS) Hospital Interpreter Program (HIP), Seattle
Carmen Rockwell, Regional Manager, US Dept of Health & Human Svcs, Office for Civil Rights, Region X, Seattle
Peggy Shapiro, Washington State Hospital Association, Seattle
Sharyne Shiu-Thornton, Professor of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle
Lisa Silverburg, US Dept of Health & Human Svcs, Office for Civil Rights, Washington DC
Lorraine Thomas, Navajo interpreter, U.S. Indian Health Service, Kayenta, AZ
Margaret Whalawitza, Navajo interpreter and Community Health Educator, Northern Navajo Medical Center, Shiprock, NM
In Memoriam
Raquel Cashman, Click here to learn more about Raquel Cashman's life
John Chavez, Click here to learn more about John Chavez's life
Frank V. Martinez, Click here to learn more about Frank Martínez's life
Ly Sieng Ngo, Click here to learn more about Ly Sieng Ngo's life
John Nickrosz, Click here to learn more about John Nickrosz's life
Shari Wilson, Click here to learn more about Shari Wilson's life
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