Niels Agger-Gupta, PhD. 

Niels is the former Executive Director of CHIA (2000-2002), on the CHIA Standards & Certification Committee, a co-author of the CHIA standards document, and is the webmaster for the CHIA.ws website.  Niels is currently consults with the Center for Innovation in the Nonprofit Sector in Santa Barbara.  He has a doctorate in Human & Organizational Systems from the Fielding Graduate Institute.  His dissertation focused on the emergence of the healthcare interpreting profession and best practices across Canada and the US.  Niels consults with government and administrators on healthcare interpreter and linguistic access policy, as well with nonprofit organizations on organizational development issues, strategic planning and appreciative inquiry.  He also consults on website and telecommunity design. 
Niels is on the Policy & Research Committee of the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care.  
In Canada, Niels worked with the senior management team of the Calgary Regional Health Authority, helping the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, develop healthcare interpreter policy and a process for interpreter implementation, and worked as a consultant with the Alberta Multiculturalism Commission between 1987 and 1998, with a focus on healthcare and public sector access issues for people from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
contact:  agger@attglobal.net 

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Frank Almeida

(20 years experience with federal court certification)

(A bio is coming!)

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Claudia Angelelli, PhD.

Claudia Angelelli holds a Ph.D in Educational Linguistics from Stanford University, a Master of the Arts in Teaching Foreign Languages (Spanish), with graduate certificates in TESOL and a Language Program Administration from the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS), and a degree in Comparative Law and Legal Translation from the UCA, Argentina with certificates in English/Spanish/French translation and interpreting (T&I).
Her research focuses on the role of the interpreter, specifically in a medical setting. She is currently working on issues of assessment in interpreting. Her publications include articles in Translation/Interpreting Pedagogy (including young interpreters), Medical Interpreting, and Language Pedagogy for Specific Purposes (including T/I).
Currently she is an Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at San Diego State University (courses on translation/interpreting theory and practice and teacher education). Before SDSU she was a Lecturer in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the Law School at Stanford University (courses on language for specific purposes, teacher practicum, and translation w/service learning). Prior to that she was Assistant Professor at the MIIS Graduate School of Language and Educational Linguistics (courses on language for specific purposes, and teacher education) and Visiting Professor at the MIIS Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation (courses on language enhancement for translators/interpreters, translation, and sight translation). In Argentina she was Associate Professor of Legal Translation at the Catholic University and the Universidad del Salvador (course on translation of business, civil, criminal, and labor law). She facilitates workshops and seminars for professional organizations in the US and Latin America.
She is a CHIA Standard and Certification committee member, co-author of the new Standards. She serves on the Advisory Committee of the National Council of Interpreters in Health Care and is an Observer for Hablamos Juntos.
contact: claudia.angelelli@sdsu.edu

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Terry Bautista

Teresita C. Bautista is Director of Interpreter-Translation Services at Alameda County Medical Center. Prior to this she served as the Community Relations Director for Highland Hospital, where she had oversight over Bilingual Services, Volunteers, Public Information, Patient Affairs, and staffed Highland's Community Advisory Commission. Ms. Bautista came from the non-profit sector where she served as agency liaison to government, community, and private agencies advocating for immigrant, refugee, and bilingual services in employment and training, education, higher education, media, health and mental health services for youth, senior citizens, and new arrivals.

Involved for more than three decades as a volunteer in many grassroots efforts, she is currently Vice President and Marketing and Communications Chair of California Healthcare Interpreters Association (CHIA). Ms. Bautista is a credentialed ESL instructor, a Vocational ESL consultant, and has her Bachelor of Arts in Humanities from the University of California, Berkeley.
contact: tbautista@acmedctr.org

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Dawn Birnie

(A bio is coming!)

contact: dawn.birnie@berlitzglobalnet.com

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Joaquin Chan-Sanchez

Joaquín CHAN-SÁNCHEZ has been an interpreter and translator for over 20 years. He studied translation and interpretation at the Instituto Superior de Intérpretes y Traductores in Mexico City, and court interpretation at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is currently studying translation at New York University. He has been involved in every aspect of the translation field, from proofreading and editing to straight translation, publishing, book evaluation and teaching. Before becoming a court interpreter in California, he worked as an interpreter for several private bureaus, governmental institutions in Mexico, and international agencies. He has been an instructor, mentor and examiner for the Los Angeles Superior Court Interpreter Training Program and other government entities. He has coordinated and presented orientation sessions for new interpreters at the Los Angeles Superior Court as well as presented the Ethics Workshop for the California Judicial Council and many workshops on translation and interpretation for different professional organizations. Mr. Chan-Sánchez is accredited into Spanish by the American Translators Association. He is an approved translator and court interpreter for the Los Angeles Superior Court, as well as a certified federal court interpreter.
contact: JCHANSANCHEZ@cs.com

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Alice Chen, MD, MPH.

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Susan Choi, MS

 (A bio is coming!)

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Ann S. Chun, M.P.A.

Ann S. Chun, M.P.A., is currently the Cultural Access Specialist for Alameda County Children and Families Commission (also known as Prop 10), a tobacco tax initiative dedicated to serving children prenatal to age five. In her position, Ann developed a system to enable service providers to access the limited English speaking population throughout the county. Previously, she was at Children’s Hospital Oakland where she coordinated the Multicultural Curriculum Program (MCP) working with residents and physicians to develop trainings on providing culturally responsive health care for diverse populations. Ann has also worked at Asian Health Services establishing their Language and Cultural Access Program where she helped to develop a “language bank” for the health care facilities in Alameda County. She also revised and co-wrote their training curriculum and served as a trainer for the Interpreter training courses. Ann is a founding Board member of CHIA, serving on the board from 1996-2001. Currently, she is a Co-Chair of the Standards and Certification Committee of California Healthcare Interpreters Association (CHIA) which has just completed the Healthcare Interpreter Standards for California and also served as a member of the Standards, Testing and Certification committee of the National Council for Interpreting in Health Care.
contact: achun@co.alameda.ca.us

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Sonia Dueño

Sonia is with Health Access in San Francisco.
contact: soniadueno@aol.com

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Janet Erickson-Johnson

Janet Erickson-Johnson, Certification Manager for Language Line Services, has overseen the development and administration of certification testing in the Medical, Court, and Insurance industries since January 2000 and has also played a lead role in the development of basic interpreter training and Medical Interpreter Training for LLS, which she has delivered both in the United States and abroad. She received a Masters’ Degree in Translation and Interpretation (Spanish) from the Monterey Institute of International Studies in 1994, and translated a book on ADD/HD from Spanish into English. Janet also completed a Medical Interpreting Internship at Stanford University Hospital in Stanford, California, in 1991 and, subsequent to receiving her degree, taught Medical Interpreting for the Monterey Institute of International Studies. As a California Administrative Hearing Certified Interpreter (1990), Janet worked as a professional free-lance interpreter for 10 years, interpreting for medical appointments, medical-legal proceedings, court proceedings, administrative hearings, and in a variety of other settings. She has also been a presenter at the 2000 Massachusetts Medical Interpreters Association Annual Conference in Boston, MA, and the 2002 ATA Regional Conference in Chicago, Ill., and is a member of the California Health Interpreters Association.
contact: jejohnson@languageline.com

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Xavier Espinosa

Xavier Espinosa is the Coordinator of Ethnic Resources for St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, California. He initiated and coordinates the Cultural Awareness and Sensitivity program. He earned his certificate in Managing Multi cultural Work Environments from California State University Fullerton and has been trained as a Living Room Dialogue Facilitator by the Orange County Human Relations Commission. Xavier also earned a Certificate as a Healthcare Interpreter Trainer through a collaboration between San Francisco City College and Kaiser Permanente. His program has provided internship opportunities to students from Mount San Antonio College Regional Health Occupation Resource Center- Health Care Interpreter Training Program and California State University, Long Beach’s Applied Anthropology Program. He is an advisor to the Abandoned Infant Rescue Project, the California State University, Fullerton’s Applied Anthropology Board, South Coast Repertory Theatre’s Education and Community Outreach Board, and has served on the United Way Target Issues Grant Selection Committee. Currently, he also serves on the Orange County Health Care Agency’s Multi Ethnic Task Force and is the current Vice Chairperson of the Orange County Mental Health Board. Under his leadership, the Cultural Awareness and Sensitivity program has produced several ethnic-specific workshops that provide skill building for the health care professional.
contact: XESPINOS@sjo.stjoe.org

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Claudio Federico

Claudio Federico is the Director of Interpreter Development Division at Tele-Interpreters, Inc. He oversees thousands of on-site and over-the-phone interpreters. He is in charge of Recruiting, Global Education and Quality Assurance Departments within the company. Claudio has a Bachelors Degree from University of California, Santa Barbara and an Interpreter Degree from University of California, Los Angeles. He is a California State Certified Interpreter. Claudio was the Director of Education at Interpreters English Studio and Head Interpreter at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. He was also a Project Manager/Interpreter/Translator for a major Aerospace Company. He is currently a visiting Professor at Southern California School of Interpretation and University of Arizona. He is an active member of California Healthcare Interpreters Association.
contact: cfederico@teleinterpreters.com

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Bill Glasser

Bill Glasser is with Language World, LLC, an interpreter /translation service in Sacramento.  Bill is on the CHIA Policy & Advocacy Committee of the Sacramento CHIA Chapter.
contact: info@espanart.com

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Carola E. Green

Carola E. Green is Project Coordinator of the Cultural Access Program at Vista Community Clinic.  She is a Spanish interpreter and translator as well as an interpreter trainer.  She is also an Adjunct Professor at Southwestern College, Chula Vista, CA.  She is a member of the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care Standards, Certification & Training Committee.  Carola is a founding member of CHIA, and was Vice-President from 1996 to 2001.  Carola was a former Team Leader, Interpreter Services, Cedars-Sinai Hospital, Los Angeles.
contact: cgreen@vistacommunityclinic.org

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Miya Iwataki

Miya Iwataki’s career has centered on government policy and public/community advocacy. She is a Steering Committee member of the Task Force on Multicultural Health of CA Department of Health Services; Executive Board member of the CA Pan Ethnic Health Network; and was appointed by CA State Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg to the Task Force on Culturally Competent Physicians and Dentists. She served as Statewide Co-Chair for Asian Pacific Islanders CA Action Network and State Co-Chair for Californians Against Prop. 187.

Miya Iwataki is currently Director of the Office of Diversity Programs of Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS); she is providing leadership for the development of Cultural and Linguistic Standards for the department. DHS is the 2nd largest health system in the US, and will be the first county to have C & L standards. She served as Executive Director for the Los Angeles County Commission for Children and Families; Branch Manager for the DHS Children’s Health Initiative, and Manager of the DHS Office of Community Relations.

As Health Chair for Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council, she co-chaired the APPPCON Legislative Hearing on Health co-sponsored with Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy; and Legislative Hearing on Impact of Welfare Reform on APIs. She services as Board Vice President, Asian Pacific Health Care Venture; Regional Council of American Cancer Society; and Board, Asian Pacific Community Fund.

Nationally, she sits as a National Advisor for the Conferences on Culturally Diverse Populations and chaired the Congressional Diversity Council for Rep. Millender-McDonald. As Legislative Chair for NCRR, she helped lead a 141-person grassroots delegation to Washington DC to win reparations for Americans of Japanese ancestry imprisoned in camp during WWII. In 1992, Miya Iwataki was the United States presenter at the International Conference on Wartime Reparations in Osaka, Japan. In 1985, she was selected to be one of 37 women sponsored by the United Nations NGO Office to the U.N. Decade for Women Convention in Nairobi, Kenya. She was also an invited member of the 1980 Women’s Healthcare Delegation to China, Hong Kong and Japan.

Miya Iwataki has a strong media background, hosting and producing a weekly program on KPFK 90.7 FM Pacifica Radio for 12 years; she was elected chair of the KCET-TV Advisory Board for two terms. She was Press Director for Congressman Mervyn Dymally, and has been press and platform coordinator in various local, state and Congressional political campaigns.
contact: miwataki@dhs.co.la.ca.us

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Malcolm Leal, PhD, MBA

(A bio is coming!)

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Jan T. Liu, MHS,

Jan T. Liu, MHS, currently serves as a Policy Analyst for the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF). APIAHF is a national advocacy organization dedicated to promoting policy, program and research efforts for the improvement of health status of all Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. In his current position, Jan is responsible for conducting analysis and advocacy on California and national health policy issues affecting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Previously, Jan worked in primary care policy at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, and in government relations at the American Public Health Association. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Washington Public Health Association, and the Asian and Pacific Islander Partnership for Health.  Jan holds a Master’s of Health Science (MHS) in International Health from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, and a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
contact: jliu@apiahf.org

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Martin Martinez, MPP

Martin Martinez has been the Policy Director at the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network since August 2001. He earned his Master of Public Policy degree from the University of California at Berkeley, and is a graduate of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. Before joining CPEHN he performed policy advocacy and community organizing for AIDS Project East Bay for five years. He specializes in direct advocacy and teaching underserved membersof the community how to become advocates for themselves. He has served on numerous statewide and local boards and coalitions, and has advocated on behalf of several bills in the state legislature, and for increased funding for health programs.

His past advocacy work has included advocating for increased HIV prevention funds for communities of color, and for culturally competent care and prevention strategies for African American and Latino men, and for Gay and Bisexual men of color and Transgender individuals.
contact: mmartinez@cpehn.org

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Marilyn Mochel, R.N., C.D.E.

Over the past twenty-eight years, Ms. Mochel has worked with diverse multiethnic groups in California as a registered nurse in a variety of hospital, clinic, public health and community settings.  She assisted in the development of a satellite clinic, Center for Diabetes, after providing patient education in the hospital setting for several years.  She later worked in the Refugee Health program at Merced County Department of Public Health and developed successful pilot programs that received the 1996 Award for Excellence in Multicultural Health from the National Association of County and City Health Officials. 

Ms. Mochel co-founded a health focused collaborative of organizations and concerned citizens entitled the MATCH (Multidisciplinary Approach to Cross-cultural Health) Coalition.  She assisted the coalition obtain funding for projects to improve access to culturally sensitive health care for underserved groups in Merced County.  Funding included the development of a multicultural community health center, Healthy House. Ms. Mochel is currently employed by the California Health Collaborative and is the program manager of the Central Valley Healthcare Interpreter Training Project and the Healthy House Partners in Healing Project.  She is currently assisting Healthy House to build its own infrastructure to transition into a sustainable non-profit organization.

Ms. Mochel has facilitated and taught “Bridging the Gap,” the healthcare interpreter-training program developed by Seattle’s Cross Cultural Health Care Program.  She assisted with the development of the curriculum, Connecting Worlds, a forty-hour training for healthcare interpreters based upon the Standards of Practice for Healthcare Interpreters in California.  Ms. Mochel assisted in the development of curriculum for Hmong shaman to introduce them to Western medicine and link them to health care providers.  She also develops cultural responsiveness curriculum for healthcare providers that has been presented to a variety of health, mental health and social service agencies in California. 

Ms. Mochel has been contracted by The California Endowment as an expert panelist in the development of Cultural Competence Standards.  The Merced County Board of Supervisors to the Children’s and Families First Commission appointed her in 1999 as a Commissioner.  She is an active member of the American Association of Diabetes Educators.  Marilyn has been a member of the Standards and Certification Committee of the California Healthcare Interpreters Association, and is one of the co-authors of the new Standards document.  

Ms. Mochel co-authored the article, The Hmong and Health Care in Merced, California with anthropologist, Miriam Warner, Ph.D., that was published by the Hmong Studies Journal in 1998.  She also co-authored an article with Deborah Helsel, Ph.D. that has been accepted for publication by the Transcultural Nursing Journal.
Email: mmochel@mercednet.com 

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Betty Moore, MLS

Betty Moore is Program Manager with Healthy House/California Health Collaborative in Merced.  Betty is the Secretary of the Board of CHIA.
contact: bmoore@mercednet.com

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Nancy McCurry

  Nancy McCurry is the Test Program Coordinator for Cooperative Personnel Services, Medical Interpreter Certification Program.

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Irene Nikolayeca-Stone

  (A bio is coming!)

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Linda Okahara

Linda Okahara is Program Director with Asian Health Services, Oakland.  Linda is a member of the CHIA Standards & Certification Committee and is a co-author of the CHIA Standards document.
contact: lokahara@ahschc.org

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Elizabeth An-Dao Nguyen

Elizabeth Nguyen is the Culture and Linguistic Specialist with L.A. Care Health Plan in Los Angeles.  Elizabeth is a CHIA Board member, Co-Chair of the CHIA Standards & Certification Committee, and a co-author of the CHIA standards document.  She is an interpreter and translator in Vietnamese and French, as well as an interpreter trainer.  Elizabeth is a former Program Manager at PALS for Health, Los Angeles.
contact: enguyen@lacare.org

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Jesus Oliva, MD

Dr. Oliva is the Director of the Welcome Back Program at Mt. San Antonio College, in the Regional Health Occupations Resource Center.
contact: joliva@mtsac.edu

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Beverly Treumann

Beverly Treumann is an interpreter at UCLA Medical Center.  She is certified for medical interpreting in Spanish and English, by Cooperative Personnel Services for the State of California.  In addition to interpreting, her duties at UCLA include translation of patient education materials, and scheduling agency interpreters, bilingual staff and volunteers to assist patients in languages not covered by staff interpreters.

Ms. Treumann also is a conference interpreter (consecutive into English and simultaneous interpreting into Spanish) for visiting Latin American speakers at public events in the Los Angeles area.

Prior to joining the Interpreter staff at UCLA Medical Center in 1998, she worked at Children's Hospital Los Angeles in 1997 and Family Practice Medical Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1996.  Treumann worked as a freelance interpreter from 1992 to 1996.  She was contracted by several Minnesota hospitals, including Hennepin County Medical Center, University of Minnesota Hospital and Clinic and Ramsey County Hospital.  Ms. Treumann was also contracted by the Minnesota Second District Court for legal interpreting for plaintiffs, defendants and witnesses in juvenile, family, and probate courts, probation and public defender offices, and jail.

Ms. Treumann acquired her Spanish as a second language working in Mexico and Central America in the 1970s and 1980s.  These experiences included serving as a literacy teacher in the Nicaraguan Literacy Campaign in 1980, an initiative of the Sandinista government in the first year of the Nicaraguan revolution. As a literacy teacher, she lived with an 11 member peasant family, did domestic and farm work during the day, and held classes in literacy and elementary arithmetic in evenings in San Rafael del Norte, Nicaragua. 

Ms. Treumann is the President of the Board of Directors of CHIA, and the former Chair of the Los Angeles Chapter.
e-mail: BTreumann@mednet.ucla.edu 

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Hong Vu, MA.

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Karin Wang, JD

Karin Wang is the Deputy Regional Manager in the Region IX Office for  Civil Rights (OCR), in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services  (HHS).  As the Deputy Regional Manager, Ms. Wang oversees the Los Angeles field office but assists in administering civil rights enforcement for a region that includes California, Hawaii, Arizona, Nevada, and the Pacific territories.  Prior to joining OCR in December 2000, Ms. Wang was a Staff Attorney at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) in Los Angeles, where she directed APALC’s Immigrant Welfare Project.  At APALC, her work involved state and local policy advocacy on immigrant welfare and health issues, including benefits eligibility and immigration and language barriers to access.  She also served as Co-Chair of the Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council Health Committee and as a member of several Los Angeles County and California task forces working to improve access to health and social services for immigrants and refugees.  Ms. Wang is a 1995 graduate of UC-Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, where she served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Asian Law Journal, which focused on legal and policy issues affecting Asian American communities.  As a law student, she externed for the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco, working on voting rights and hate crimes issues.  Following graduation, Ms. Wang practiced with the law firm of Morrison & Foerster LLP in San Francisco. Ms. Wang received her B.S. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. 
contact: Karin.Wang@hhs.gov

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Lily Wong, MA. MBA

  Lily Wong is the Director of the Language and Culture Resource Center at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, overseeing Los Angeles County’s model program.  A major focus of the program is implementation of linguistic standards to provide culturally competent and linguistically appropriate patient care of the highest quality.   
 
Lily manages the facility interpretation/ translation services, and establishes linkages with contract agencies and/or community organizations for language interpretation services.  Lily also develops interpreter policies and procedures for the facility, provides training for healthcare providers and staff on working effectively with interpreters, interpreter skills training, cultural diversity lectures, and implements the innovative program using wireless technology to improve access for interpreter services at the point of clinical contact.  
 
Lily hails from Myanmar (formerly Burma), holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA, and Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in English (Linguistics) from Yangon (Rangoon) University, Myanmar.  Lily also completed the Legal Training Program at UCLA extension, the 40-hour Bridging the Gap Medical Interpreter Training and Training the Trainers for Bridging the Gap developed by Seattle’s Cross Cultural Healthcare Program.  Lily participated in the CHIA focus group for California healthcare interpreter standards.  She has extensive professional interpretation/ translation experience, and has worked in international business and immigration law.
contact: LaWong@dhs.co.la.ca.us