10th Annual OHCIA Conference
Honoring the Past
Embracing the Present
Inspiring the Future
May 31, 2025 // Online
This year, as OHCIA celebrates its 15th anniversary, we reflect on the legacy of our association, the leaders who have contributed to its success, and the trajectory of the interpreting profession. We contemplate the changes over the last 15 years, discuss strategies to face today’s challenges, and imagine the advances we’ll see in 15 years if we rise to meet the moment.
Conference Details
When: May 31, 2025
Where: Online (details to come)
Schedule & Cost: $10 admission + $20 per CEU
Registration: 👉 Register Here
NOTE: You must be registered for the conference to receive CEUs. If you paid for CEUs but forgot to register for the conference, please contact training@ohcia.org to make arrangements now. Only registered individuals will be allowed to join the online conference. No exceptions.
Keynote
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Emma Sandoe, PhD, MPH
Emma Sandoe, PhD, MPH, is the director of Oregon’s Medicaid Division. She leads employees and programs that support Oregon Health Plan (OHP), the state’s Medicaid program, which serves approximately 1.4 million members. Before coming to OHA, Dr. Sandoe served as North Carolina’s Deputy Director of Medicaid Policy, where she was the primary liaison to Tribal nations in the state and to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). She oversaw the state’s Medicaid Plan and its Medicaid waivers, and took a lead role in developing and implementing new policies to improve health equity. As part of her work in North Carolina, Dr. Sandoe helped direct the passage and implementation of the state’s Medicaid expansion, which brought health coverage to more than 550,000 people. She also led efforts to expand the health care workforce under North Carolina’s Home and Community-based Services (HCBS) program and assisted in developing and implementing the state’s Healthy Opportunity Pilots program, leveraging Medicaid dollars to address food, transportation, and housing insecurity, as well as toxic stress.
Special Topic
With a change in Administration in Washington, D.C., many of the gains we’ve seen in language access over the past four years are unfortunately changing. The presentation will discuss what’s happened so far, what we expect to happen in the coming years, how to engage in your state, and how we can organize and advocate to preserve and protect language access.
Guest Speaker: Mara Youdelman
Mara Youdelman is Managing Director for Federal Advocacy in the Washington DC office of the National Health Law Program (NHeLP), She also served as Founding Chair and Commissioner of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters and recently rejoined CCHI as a Commissioner. At NHeLP, Mara coordinated a national coalition to develop a consensus-driven agenda to improve language access policies and funding. Mara is co-author of Ensuring Linguistic Access in Health Care Settings: Legal Rights and Responsibilities and, from The Commonwealth Fund, three reports on promising practices for providing language services. She has authored a 50-state survey of state statutes and regulations on language access and written about how Medicaid can pay for language services. Mara is recognized as a national expert on language access and has participated on expert advisory panels for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the National Committee for Quality Assurance; the National Quality Forum; and The Joint Commission.
Conference Schedule - May 31, 2025
All times listed are in Pacific Time (PT)
7:30 - 8:00 am
Arrival
8:00 - 8:30 am
Welcome and Announcements
8:30 - 9 am
Keynote Presentation — Dr. Emma Sandoe
9:00 - 9:10 am
Q&A with Dr. Sandoe
9:15 - 10:00 am
Special Topic — Mara Youdelman
10:00 - 10:30 Am
Vendor Introduction
11:00 am - 1:00 Pm
CEUs (2 hours)
Public Speaking for T&I Professionals — Marisa Rueda-Will
Navigating Interpreter Skills and Ethical Dilemmas in Medical Settings:
Balancing the Roles of Advocate and Neutral Facilitator — Danlu Yang & Amanda Wheeler-KayInterpreting in the NICU — Felicity Ratway
Workshop (11:00 am - 12:00 pm)
Boost Your Resume: Become a Court Interpreter — Michaelle Gearhart
Workshops (12:00 - 1:00 pm)
Interpreter Support Group — Victoria de la Llama & Jamie Newell
OHA EID / OCHCI — Edna Nyamu, Laura Wendel, & Batula Mohamud
1:00 - 2:00 pm
Meet with vendors, connect with affinity groups, or play Jeopardy
2:00 - 4:00 pm
CEUs (2 hours)
Oregon's Interpreter Workforce: Present, Past, & Future — Felicity Ratway
Ethics of Interpreting — Winston Meier
Injured Worker System — Mary Soots
Workshop (2:00 - 4:00 pm)
English-to-English (EtoE) — Marisa Rueda-Will
Workshop (2:00 - 3:00 pm)
SAFE AI — Bill Rivers
4:00 - 4:30 pm
Interpreter of the Year poll + winner announcement
4:30 - 5:00 pm
Closing time, raffle, and survey!
Continuing Education Units (CEUs)
These Continuing Education Units (CEUs) are only offered during our 10th Annual Conference and at a discounted price for Health Care Interpreters in the Oregon State Registry! 👉 Register here
All CEUs are approved for continuing education credits by RID, CCHI and OHA and are pending approval by IMIA/NBCMI.
Public Speaking for T&I Professionals
If you’re a T&I professional, you are a public speaker. Each time you attend a meeting, have a conversation with a client, or give an in-person or virtual presentation, you are exercising your public speaking skills. If you would like to be a more dynamic speaker with a higher chance of not only getting your message across, but getting listeners to remember it long term, this course is ideal for you. Investing in your public speaking skills may give you the confidence you need to make your voice heard and make a lasting impression.
Speaker: Marisa Rueda-Will
Marisa Rueda Will has been a medical interpreter at a Mayo Clinic for over 18 years. She earned a degree in Spanish from Luther College in 2006. She became a Certified Healthcare Interpreter-Spanish in 2012 and a Licensed Interpreter Trainer through Cross Cultural Communications in 2017. In 2020, she became a Simulation Center Instructor. She joined the NCIHC Webinars Work Group in 2022. That same year, she was promoted to a Level III Medical Interpreter at Mayo Clinic. Marisa has presented for the CHIA and ATA conferences, CCHI Summit, Atrium Health Symposium, and NCIHC Home for Trainers Webinar Series. She was accepted to the Masters of Interpreting Studies program through Western Oregon University and will start in fall 2024. In addition to being a full-time staff interpreter and student, she owns an interpreter training and translation business. Marisa specializes in education through storytelling. Her company, Tica Interpreter Training and Translations provides interpreter training based on real patient experiences.
Navigating Interpreter Skills and Ethical Dilemmas in Medical Settings: Balancing the Roles of Advocate and Neutral Facilitator
This presentation explores the multifaceted role of medical interpreters as critical mediators in healthcare. Drawing on insights from two collaborative discussions, we examine practical strategies fostering trust with patients and healthcare providers and advocating for interpreters' professionalgrowth. Emphasizing the creative and scientific dimensions of interpretation, we analyze ethical dilemmas, such as balancing neutrality and advocacy, maintaining linguistic precision, and managing patient information responsibly. Grounded in a teleological approach, we define the ultimate goal of medical interpretation as fostering equitable and effective communication across linguistic and cultural divides.
Speakers: Danlu Yang & Amanda Wheeler-Kay
Danlu Yang is a Ph.D. student in Applied Anthropology with a minor in Health Policy and Management at Oregon State University. As a Beijing-born anthropologist fluent in Mandarin, Spanish, and English, Danlu combines linguistic expertise with a deep understanding of cultural nuances to navigate complex cross-cultural contexts. Her master’s research focused on advocating for multilingual scholarship and advancing epistemological justice by investigating the publishing challenges faced by non-native English-speaking scholars in Brazil, China, Portugal, Spain, and the United States. Her exceptional cross-cultural communication skills and sensitivity to cultural variations have positioned her as an effective mediator and facilitator in multicultural communities. She is driven by a commitment to equity, fostering dialogue across diverse ethnic groups, and dismantling structural barriers that marginalize non-English voices. Her vision extends beyond academia, aiming to create a more inclusive and just intellectual landscape that reflects the richness of global perspectives.
Amanda Wheeler-Kay (she/her) is a Certified Healthcare Interpreter, educator, and lifelong learner. A white woman from Oregon, Amanda speaks Spanish as her second language. She is a former social worker who has worked as a community and healthcare interpreter, as well as an interpreter educator in Portland since 2007. Her heart also resides in two other communities she once called home: Washington, D.C., and Buena Vista, Cuscatlán, El Salvador. Amanda is currently completing her Master’s Degree in Interpreting Studies with a focus on teaching at Western Oregon University, with an expected graduation date of June 2025. She serves on the board of Nuevas Sonrisas, a local nonprofit supporting health hygiene and dental education for schoolchildren in Guatemala, and will lead their service trip for the second year in a row in 2025.
Interpreting in the NICU
The neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU for short, provides specialized care for infants who are premature or have other health complications. In this course, interpreters learn what to expect when interpreting in this environment–from types of specialists they might encounter to common terms and abbreviations used to the challenges families of hospitalized infants might encounter.
Oregon's Interpreter Workforce: Present, Past, & Future
This course explores the past, present and future of the interpreting workforce in Oregon, highlighting key moments in state history that influenced the direction of the profession, present research on the state of the workforce, and challenges and opportunities over the coming years.
Speaker: Felicity Ratway
Felicity Ratway has 10 years of experience as a healthcare interpreter, researcher, and instructor. She serves as Director of Educational Programs at the Oregon Health Care Interpreters Association, overseeing training and continuing education courses. She holds certifications through OHA and NBCMI and a Master's degree in Interpreting and Translation Studies from Wake Forest University and is currently a PhD candidate at Oregon State University (OSU), researching access to interpreters in the health care setting in Oregon. As a graduate research assistant, Felicity designed and currently teaches the OSU Spanish-English Health Care Interpreter Training Program. In addition to her work roles, Felicity holds elected positions as rural interpreter representative on the bargaining team in Oregon Interpreters in Action, a statewide healthcare interpreters’ union of which she is a founding member, and as Chair of the Advocacy and Legislative Committee on the Oregon Council on Health Care Interpreters. Since 2018, she has worked on state policies related to language access as well as several state bills focused on access to healthcare interpreters and improving working conditions for interpreters.
Ethics of Interpreting
What do we actually mean when we say, ""Do the right thing"" ""That was not ethical?"" Ethics touches every part of our lives, including our professional lives. Professional interpreters are tasked with accurately and impartially communicating the inner reality of a client. They also work at the nexus of other industries — e.g., law and healthcare — where the moral stakes can be high. This talk will examine the ethical systems that we subscribe to and the principles we deploy when making moral decisions. We will also explore some common moral dilemmas for interpreters and some key tools you can apply immediately to make more ethically informed choices. Ethics is complex, but this talk will make it simple and accessible, leaving you more confident in your moral decision-making.
Speaker: Winston Meier
Winston Meier completed a BS in philosophy at Portland State University and MA in philosophy at Simon Fraser University. There he studied and wrote about meta-ethics and normative ethics. Since graduating he has taught introductory philosophy courses at Lasalle College Vancouver. He also writes about philosophy and politics.
Injured Worker System
Speaker: Mary Soots
Oregon and Washington individuals who are injured on the job are protected by the Oregon Workers Compensation Division or by Washington Labor & Industries. Learn how these programs work and what rights and responsibilities workers have, as well as the responsibilities of their employers, occupational health providers, and the state. As the individual navigates medical treatment, time off, and possible retraining for future employment, they are faced with barriers and checkpoints along the way. Interpreters may find themselves interpreting appointments that they don't understand how they fit into the course of an injured worker claim and the overlap between health and legal realms. Learn about IME's, arbiter exams, indemnization, ombudsmen, etc.
Mary Soots is an Anthropologist, social researcher and policy analyst, as well as a Certified Health Care Interpreter (Spanish). She is Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at Portland State University, is the former Director of Education Programs for the Oregon Health Care Interpreters Association (OHCIA), and provides training to health professionals. Mary holds a M.A. and B.A. in Anthropology from Portland State University, a B.A. in International Studies, as well as Minor Degrees in Spanish and in Geography.
Workshops
Boost Your Resume: Become a Court Interpreter
Speaker: Michaelle Gearhart
This one-hour workshop will provide participants information on how court interpreting can expand their interpreting career opportunities. We will cover career development, what skills are needed for court interpreting, the benefits to pursuing court interpreter certification, and the steps to start the court certification process.
Interpreter Support Group
Speakers: Victoria de la Llama & Jamie Newell
Medical interpreters play a vital role in healthcare, often navigating complex medical terminology and emotionally sensitive patient interactions. Recognizing the unique demands and potential for professional isolation within this rewarding field, this workshop aims to foster a supportive community for medical interpreters. Participants will engage in focused discussions on common challenges encountered in facilitating difficult conversations, collaborating effectively with hospital staff, and advocating for patient needs within ethical boundaries. The workshop will conclude with an open forum for sharing experiences and peer support.
Oregon Health Authority: Equity and Inclusion Division (OHA EID) // Oregon Council on Health Care Interpreters (OCHCI)
Speaker: Edna Nyamu (pictured), Laura Wendel, Batula Mohamud
Join us for an insightful workshop focused on the vital role of health care interpreters (HCIs) in improving patient care and communication between persons with limited English proficiency (LEP) and medical providers. Explore working with professionally trained HCIs. Learn about free HCI training and continue education unity (CEUs), and strategies to work with interpreter in medical settings. This session will provide valuable tools for healthcare professionals/providers, health care interpreters, and organizations aiming to ensure clear, accurate, and compassionate communication across language barriers by working with health care interpreters.
English to English (EtoE)
Speaker: Marisa Rueda-Will
In 2017, CCHI began discussions with stakeholders and focus groups about the feasibility of exploring whether cognitive interpreting skills can be measured via a monolingual standardized oral performance test in English (English-to-English or EtoE). This innovative approach provides a viable assessment tool for interpreters of less common languages (i.e., languages of lower incidence), where creating a separate dual-language oral performance exam is often unfeasible.
The English-to-English exam evaluates interpreting readiness in U.S. healthcare settings through indirect methods that assess cognitive interpreting skills rather than direct interpreting skills. The exam includes various components such as paraphrasing, listening comprehension, shadowing, memory capacity, and reading comprehension. Paraphrasing, for instance, demonstrates English comprehension of U.S. medical discourse, the accuracy of conversion without changing meaning, and depth of vocabulary in English.
What sets this exam apart is its performance component, which elevates national certification by providing interpreters of all languages the opportunity to demonstrate their readiness for healthcare interpreting without the logistical challenges of creating bilingual performance tests.
During this presentation, participants will have the opportunity to engage in mock exam exercises, gaining firsthand experience with the efficacy of this innovative method for assessing and predicting interpreting skills. Join us as we aim higher and establish new benchmarks in the field of healthcare interpreting!
SAFE AI
Speaker: Bill Rivers
The SAFE-AI (Stakeholders Advocating for Fair and Ethical AI in Interpreting) Task Force (Interpreting SAFE-AI TF, https://safeaitf.org/), was founded in the summer of 2023 in response to emerging AI products for interpreting based on the use of generative AI and Large Language Models, which we refer to as Automatic Interpreting by Artificial Intelligence (AIxAI). The Task Force’s mission is to establish, disseminate and promote industry-wide guidelines and best practices for accountable design and adoption of AI in interpreting, through facilitating dialogue and action among designers, vendors, buyers, qualified practitioners, end-users, policymakers, and other stakeholders. Join this workshop to learn more about the Task Force and its guidance.
OHCIA Health Care Interpreter of the Year Award
We want to honor a Health Care Interpreter who exemplifies the profession and strives to serve their communities by providing health care equity through language access. The Interpreter of the Year will be elected using a poll, and registered guests will be allowed to vote for the candidates.The winner of the award will be announced during this year’s conference.
Sponsors
Sponsorship information coming soon!