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Board of Directors
Officers are voted by the Executive Board after each election every two years
 President - Officer term expires December 31, 2023.
Board term expires December 31, 2025.
Juana Horton is the CEO of Horton Interpreting Services Inc., the largest interpreting and translation company in Rhode Island, working in over 200 languages with over 200+ professional translators and interpreters. Ms. Horton, who is Venezuelan-American, has over 17 years of practical application experience in translating and interpreting. Member of; IMIA, ATA, and the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters. In the course of her career, her achievements have been recognized with the following awards: 2000, "Small Business Leader of the Year" the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce. The U.S. Small Business Administration's "RI Minority Small Business Person" of the year 2002 and 2003, Rhode Island and New England's "Minority Small Business Advocate of the Year". 2004, YWCA's Hallmark Women Award, "Women's Economic Empowerment". 2008, "Woman in Business" from the Women's Center of RI . 2007, "Entrepreneur" RI Genesis center. 2006, "Healthcare Business Leader of the Year" national Association of Hispanic Healthcare Executives. 2009, " Influential Women Behind Hispanic Chambers " Morris County Hispanic chamber of Commerce. Ms. Horton currently serves and has served on the following Boards; Boston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, New England Association of Schools and Colleges, RI Hospital Board of Governors, Butler Hospital Board of Governors, Phoenix House of New England, RI School of Design Arts Committee, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of RI, Providence Foundation, Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of RI, Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, and the Providence Economic Development Partnership Board. Contact: president@imiaweb.org
 Secretary - Officer term expires December 31, 2023.
Board term expires December 31, 2025.
Amani Zaki, BA. CHI™, was born and raised in Egypt, currently living in Los Angeles, California. She attended the Alexandria University in Egypt where she earned her Bachelor's degree in English Literature in 2008. She worked as a Senior Interpreter for four and half years, before starting a full time position as a Healthcare Language and Cultural Specialist at Children's Hospital Los Angeles in 2014. She earned her credentials through CCHI as a Certified Healthcare Interpreter; she is also an IMIA member since 2014. She is the IMIA California State Chair. Contact: azaki@imiaweb.org
Directors
 Maria D. Gatej, JD - Term expires December 31, 2025.
Maria graduated from the University of Cluj, Romania with a Bachelors of Arts in Romance Languages and Literature (French, Romanian and Italian). She is also fluent in Hungarian and Spanish. Maria pursued her graduate studies at UMASS North Dartmouth School of Law where she received her Juris Doctor degree in 2000. She is currently working as the Director of Educational Interpreter Services for the Merrimack Valley Area Health Educational Center/UMASS Medical School Statewide AHEC. In this capacity, she is in charge with the management of the MV AHEC grants and programs related to the medical interpreter field. Maria is closely involved as a faculty member and preceptor/language specialist in the 60 hrs. Fundamentals of Medical Interpreting. She is also teaching and presenting various workshops related to working with medical interpreters in the Community Medicine part of the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center’s Family Residency Program. Maria is the chairperson for the Merrimack Valley Interpreter Services Task Force, a coalition that is promoting among many other great things, a healthy communication and collaboration between IMIA and local medical and health care institutions. She was part of the IMIA By-Laws Committee, capacity in which she had the exciting opportunity to review and update the existing By-Laws. Currently, Maria is also serving as one of the IMIA Board Director and the Ethics Committee Chairperson - a position that enables her to work with a wonderful team of colleagues in creating the first IMIA Ethical Complaint Procedures. Besides her professional career, Maria enjoys reading, traveling, skiing and spending time with her family. Contact: MGatej@imiaweb.
 Eric Candle - Term expires December 31, 2025.
Eric Candle is the President of ECdata, Inc. National Training Institute, a NY-based interpreting and cross-cultural communication training and language access consulting company and is the International Medical Interpreters Association (IMIA) U.S. Coordinator and NY State Chapter Chair. He is a qualified medical interpreter with 15 years of professional experience at the largest NY State hospitals, a credentialed translator, and a licensed Medical Interpreter trainer.
Eric teaches Medical Interpreting at the City University of New York and is a lecturer at the State University of New York. He had taught in many countries all over the world. Eric is a passionate advocate of the meaningful LEP patient's access to healthcare services and has delivered numerous presentations on professionalization of Medical Interpreting, National Certification and Language Access. His college graduation work was presented in English, German, and Russian languages. Contact: ecandle@imiaweb.org.
.jpg) Tamas Farkas - Term expires December 31, 2027.
Tamas is the Director of Language Access Programs for CCHCP: Bridging the Gap medical interpreting training and Connecting to Care: Patient Guide training. Tamas is a linguist, trainer and interpreter, with fluency in five languages. Born in Budapest, Hungary, Tamas moved to the United States in 1999. He attended the Metropolitan State University of Denver, spending one year abroad in Switzerland studying at the University of Fribourg. After graduating with a B.A. in German and French, he spent a year in San Juan, Puerto Rico learning Spanish. He worked as a medical interpreter before becoming the manager of the Interpreter Network of Spring Institute. He became a trainer for the Bridging the Gap program in 2016 and has been training Bridging the Gap since then. Tamas also enjoys making art and doing outdoors activities like biking and swimming. Contact: tfarkas@imiaweb.org
 Yuka Lysiuk - Term expires December 31, 2027.
Yuka Lysiuk has worked in the medical field for 18 years and has been a medical interpreter for 13 years. Yuka is currently a candidate of the National Certified Medical Interpreter (CMI) for Japanese and has received her health care interpreter certification from the Language Line University (LLU). Yuka is a nationally certified laboratory assistant and a New York state certified medical assistant working in the hospital, ER, medical laboratory, and in various clinics. Yuka also is the founder of Hawaii Medical Interpretation & Medical Assistance which is the first on-site medical interpretation service in the state of Hawaii working for several Hospitals, local clinic, travel insurance companies, travel agencies, and resort doctor. Her responsibilities include on-site interpretation, phone interpretation, and patient advocacy to ensure a positive relationship between patients and providers. She obtained a medical interpreter trainer license in 2017 at the Cross-culture Healthcare Program “Bridging the Gap,” She is also a certified CPR, AED, and First Aid instructor at “Medic First Aid.” She also created “disaster sites medical interpreter program” in Hawaii helping LEP community in disaster setting working with the county. Yuka is also an active volunteer member at North Hawaii Hospice, Victors Aloha Society of Hawaii (VASH), West Hawaii Mediation Center and Kiwanis Club. She also served as the IMIA Medical Terminology Committee Chair, work with medical terminology projects. Contact: ylysiuk@imiaweb.org
 Iliana Sutton - Term expires December 31, 2027.
In 1990, Ms. Sutton initiated a community-based program that provided economical after –school Spanish language classes for Springdale, Huntsville, and Fayetteville school districts. In 2000, she developed and supervised an interpreter program for Springdale School district using high school senior students. Mrs. Suttons career as language coordinator at Washington Regional Medical Center began in the summer of 1996. She designed, developed, and implemented Washington Regional's Language Department, where she supervised language programs and interpreter services to improve communication barriers between Washington Regional patient and healthcare providers.
In 2019 Mrs. Sutton designed the first Bilingual Government Apprenticeship program and made it free for those who qualified through the WIOA program, and Arkansas Veterans Affairs She presently serves as Arkansas State Chapter Chair for the International Medical Interpreters Association. She is Founder and owner of Aha! Interpreting Solutions, an interpreter training and Education provider for Northwest Arkansas. Her company specializes in educational workshops in medical interpreting and business, as well as customized educational and employment language assessments for the tri-state area. Mrs. Sutton true passion allows her to volunteer her language and cultural expertise to numerous community agencies in an on-going basis that include several organizations. Contact: isutton@imiaweb.org
IMIA Past Presidents:
Raquel Cashman (deceased)
Maria Durham
John Nickrosz
Joy Connell
Izabel Arocha 2006 - 2010
Lola Bendana 2011 - 2014
Juana Horton 2015 - 2018
Dr. David Cardona 2018 - 2020
Nicholas Kern 2021
IMIA Board Hall of Fame
Additional Documents >IMIA Board Job Descriptions >Responsibilities of IMIA Governance Positions >Amended Articles of Organization as accepted by the SOS >2012 Nomination Information for Board of Directors
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