Accreditation Commissioners
Call for Commissioner
The Commission for Medical Interpreter Education (CMIE) sets the standards for medical interpreter education in the United States and in the future, worldwide. We are looking for new commissioners who are committed to quality standards in medical interpreter education.
Note:
CMIE is in need of candidates from the following fields particularly:
1. Academia
2. Hospital Management
Steps to apply:
- Review Commissioner Qualification below
- Review IMIA Representation Requiement and submit required documentation listed, view HERE
- Send complete package to accreditation@imiaweb.org:
- Resume/CV
- Bio (100-200 words)
- Headshot (JPG or GIF format)
- Letter of intent (Stipulating the specific initiatives worked on that relate to language access and interpreting, why you want to represent IMIA and how you believe you can promote the IMIA and the profession)
- Signed Non-Disclosure and Confidentiality Form view HERE
Commissioner Qualification:
1. Track 1: 40-Hour Medical Interpreter Training and/or 5 years experience as program developer of interpreter training. Or 40-Hour Medical Interpreter Training and 5 years experience as administrator/manager of language services.
2. Track 2: 40-Hour Medical Interpreter Training and meet all requirements for instructors for accredited programs.
3. Bachelor's degree.
4. Demonstrated commitment to high standards in medical interpreting education.
5. Member of IMIA.
6. Willing to be trained as site auditor and to conduct at least one audit in his/her region per year.
CMIE Note:
- Auditor assignment will be made in consideration of location, cost of audit, auditor availability, and barring any conflicts of interest. Auditors will not audit programs within their metropolitan area.
- Review and complete IMIA Leadership Required Documentation, view HERE
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Sophia Rossovsky, M.Ed.
Sophia Rossovsky holds a Master’s in Education and Linguistics and has over 20 years of experience in training, professional development and program management. Sophia is an Executive Director of City Access New York, a not-for-profit organization, serving people of all abilities. Prior to that, she was a director of New Jersey northern region training center on cultural and linguistic competence; served in the workforce, developing a training manual for Division of Youth and Family Services in collaboration with Rutgers University. She is part of various committees and associations, such as New Jersey Statewide Network for Cultural Competence, Multicultural Services Advisory Committee in NJDHMAS and International Medical Interpreter Association. Sophia is an experienced trainer. Sophia presents on topics ranging from cultural proficiency to language access. In collaboration with NJ DHSS she developed three models of interpreting curricula for the following settings: community, medical and mental health and trained over three thousand bilingual individuals as interpreters in New Jersey alone. Sophia is an avid advocate for culturally and linguistically appropriate services, presents at various forums and conferences and promotes meaningful communication in all entities.
Kathy Howell, CMI – Spanish, IMIA Maryland Chapter Chair. Maryland Eligible Court Interpreter, operates through Kathy Howell Interpreting, Translation & Cultural Consulting, and her work focuses on the medical and legal interpreting fields, in addition to medical, education, literary translation and editing. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Legal Studies with a minor in Government and Politics from UMUC. Kathy became a Certified Medical Interpreter, in 2011, with the NBCMI. She received training in court interpreting through both the New Mexico Center for Language Access and the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute. She has completed the NYU Professional Certificate in Translation Program (Spanish to English), and recently she completed the “Breaking Silence: Interpreting for Victim Services course.” She served as Tennessee Association for Professional Interpreters & Translators Member-at-Large on the Board of Directors, TAPIT Education Chair, TAPIT Conference Steering Committee Member, and TAPIT Healthcare Committee Chair. Currently, she is the IMIA Terminology Committee Vice-Chair and Commissioner for the IMIA Commission for Medical Interpreter Education. Kathy Howell is passionate about reducing barriers to healthcare and she volunteers as a workgroup member of the Maryland Cancer Collaborative (MCC). In 2018 she was member of the “Access to Care” workgroup, and this year she is a member of the “Survivorship and End of Life Education” workgroup. In addition, Kathy Howell has an interest in mediation and Restorative Justice. She is trained in mediation, and also in facilitating Restorative Reflections. She is a volunteer with the Mediation Conflict Resolution Center of Howard County, Maryland. Kathy Howell is a member of the ATA (American Translators Association), NCATA (National Capital Area Translators Association), DC- Area Literary Translators Network, the IMIA and the Maryland Patient Navigator Network. In 2014 she was recognized, and given an award for her contributions to the TAPIT organization, and in 2015 she was awarded the IMIA Interpreter of the Year Award. She has travelled extensively, and lived throughout the United States and abroad in Japan (where she ran her business teaching English and Spanish) Germany and Spanish.
Accreditation Advisory Board Members
Marjory Bancroft, MA
Marjory Bancroft is a national leader in the development of training programs for community interpreting. She holds a BA and MA in French linguistics from Université Laval in Quebec City and advanced language certificates from Spain, Germany, and Jordan. After teaching translation, English and French for two universities and Quebec government immigrant schools, she spent several years interpreting and directing an immigrant health program while running a language bank of 200 interpreters and translators. Since 2001 she has directed Cross-Cultural Communications, a training and technical assistance agency that licenses interpreter trainers across the U.S. and abroad, publishes training manuals and offers international interpreter training programs. A past board member of NCIHC, she is also the Executive Director of THE VOICE OF LOVE, a U.S.-based project about interpreting for survivors of torture, trauma and sexual violence. The author of numerous publications in the field, she speaks widely at conferences across the U.S. and abroad and sits on three international interpreting committees.
Constantina Fronimos-Baldwin, CMI-Spanish
Constantina is the Coordinator of Interpreting Services for Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis, Tennessee. Originally from Greece, she has lived in Argentina for many years where she completed undergraduate course work at the University of Buenos Aires, School of Communication Sciences. In the summer of 2013 Constantina will be graduating with a BS in Healthcare Management from South University. She has completed Level I and II of the “Hablamos Juntos” Healthcare Interpreter training program. In 2010 she became a Certified Medical Interpreter in the Spanish language. Constantina is a founding member and the current President Elect of the Tennessee Association of Medical Interpreters and Translators (TAMIT), a member of the advisory board for the Working with Interpreters project at the School of Audiology and Speech Language Pathology, at the University of Memphis, a member of the IMIA, as well as the TAPIT (Tennessee Association of Professional Interpreters and Translators).
José García
José García was born and raised in México City. He graduated as Cirujano Dentista (Doctor of Dental Surgery) from “Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México” in 1986.
José started his training in healthcare interpreting in 2004 when started working as Interpreter and Translator at Mammoth Hospital. José was in charge of the development and implementation of the hospital’s Interpreter Services Policy and Program, which included a comprehensive training program for healthcare interpreters. In 2007, José completed the TOT for Connecting Worlds Training for Healthcare Interpreters, and developed a complete course of medical terminology in Spanish to complement the trainings he provides. He’d receive CHIA’s Interpreter of the Year Award in 2010. José has been a CHIA Board member since 2007, and was elected CHIA’s President-Elect in 2013.
Since 2007, José is the Language Services Manager at Northern Inyo Hospital in Bishop, California where he lives. José volunteers for various organizations earning him the 2013 “Outstanding Person of the Year” award from a local Hispanic organization called La Causa, for his commitment to promoting Hispanic heritage through cultural activities and education.
Dr. Roseann D. Gonzalez
Please read Dr. Gonzalez's full bio at http://womensplaza.arizona.edu/honor/view.php?id=870
Scott Homler.
Dr. Scott Homler is director of the Program in Translation and Interpreting at the University of Minnesota. He is a certified legal interpreter for the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa.
Dr. Michael O’Laughlin
A member of the faculty since the program’s inception and now its director, Michael O’Laughlin is a legal interpreter certified by the states of California and Massachusetts. Dr. O’Laughlin has a lifetime of experience in the courts and has published many translations from a number of languages. He holds a master’s degree from Oxford University and a doctorate from Harvard University, both in Theology. As part of his academic training in Theology he became very involved with the translation of texts from Antiquity. He has extensive teaching and public speaking experience in the United States and also in Europe, and has written several books and a number of articles on religion, ethics, spirituality, philosophy, and interpreting. He also works as an expert witness in cases with language issues.
Marlene Vicky Obermeyer, MA, RN,
Marlene is a cross-cultural trainer and curriculum designer for cultural competency programs and professional medical interpreter training. A registered nurse with over thirty years of hands-on bedside nursing, she originally came from the Philippines, completed her nursing education in the U.S., and has obtained additional certificates in cross-cultural training and transcultural nursing. She has designed and authored over 100 contact hours of continuing education courses for nurses. She is the director of Culture Advantage, specializing in Language-Specific Professional Medical Interpreter Programs for healthcare providers - physicians, nurses, therapists, and dual-role healthcare employees, and offers programs in Arabic, Chinese Mandarin, Farsi, Korean, Nepali, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese. Marlene is a patient advocate who is actively involved in promoting and supporting professional training for medical interpreters. She is an approved provider of continuing education for nurses (approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider # CEP 15854) and a consultant with other organizations in obtaining professional accreditation and approval for providing continuing education for long-term care administrators, insurance adjusters, and case managers. She has a bachelor's degree in communication and an MA in Liberal Studies (Anthropology, Communication, International Business).
Ira SenGupta
Ira SenGupta, Executive Director of the Cross Cultural Health Care Program (CCHCP) has actively contributed to the field of culturally and linguistically appropriate health and human services as a speaker, trainer, researcher and community advocate. She has served CCHCP in several capacities for the past eighteen years while representing the organization in multiple venues. A leader in her own community, Ira has extensive experience working with ethnically diverse communities, and has gained a deep understanding of diverse perspectives on health care. She has served her community as an interpreter in three languages from India, as the President of the India Association of Western Washington and currently as a board member of Ragamala which promotes the performing arts of South Asia. She was appointed by Governor Christine Gregoire to the Board of Trustees of the Renton Technical College and is serving her second five- year term. A co-founder of the Society of Medical Interpreters, Ira continues to serve her professional community as a member of the national advisory board for the Diversity RX conference series and on the board of the International Medical Interpreters Association (IMIA).
Past Task Force Members
Izabel S. Arocha, M.Ed., CMI-Spanish
Barbara J. Rodriguez
Owner of TransFluenci Interpreting and Translation Services
Claudia Falla
Testing and Training Specialist at the Northern Virginia AHEC
Gabriela Jenicek
Manager of Language Services and Cultural Support at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Founder and chief-trainer of Interpreter Training with a Purpose
