The mission of the National Board is to foster improved healthcare outcomes, patient safety, and patient/provider communication, by elevating the standards for and quality of medical interpreting through a nationally recognized and validated certification for medical interpreters.
The CMI certification program is governed by the National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters (National Board), an independent division of the International Medical Interpreters Association (IMIA).
Effective 2018, the National Board is pleased to announce that each of the Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and Vietnamese CMI certification programs have been brought together under the same nationally accepted standards and criteria, ensuring that the CMI credentialing in each of our program languages remains the most prestigious offered in the industry. Prior to 2018, the Spanish CMI certificate was subjected to an additional level of NCCA accreditation, but while the National Board remains a member of the Institute of Credentialing Excellence (ICE), each of the National Board programs have been standardized to ensure the CMI certification in each offered language best meets or exceeds nationally accepted standards, including transparency, inclusion, and access.
The purposes of the National Board are to:
- Develop, organize, oversee, and promote a national medical interpreter certification program in all languages.
- Promote patients and providers working with credentialed medical interpreters who have met minimal national standards to provide accurate and safe interpretation.
- Ensure credibility of national certification by striving to comply with national accreditation standards including transparency, inclusion, and access.
The Board of Directors of the National Board consists of 10-12 voting members that include medical interpreters, trainers, health care providers, industry representatives, and a public member. Initial Board members were selected by a public process and independent selection committee. Subsequently, Board Directors are recruited through a Nominating Committee process and are elected by the members of the National Board.
Directors
Xiomara Armas is a BBA and NB Certified Spanish Medical Interpreter; she obtained her qualification with Georgia Department of Human Resources and Atlanta Workforce Development Agency in 2004 and started working with Cobb and Douglas county Health department, mental health and low enforcement, as well as freelance with several agencies. She's been working at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) for more than 13 years as Medical Interpreter with a deep interest in Family Education for medical conditions; she had been involved in multiple conferences, symposiums, learning days and classes for patients and families as well as Spanish recordings for Orientation videos, procedures and conditions for Hispanics patients and families, all of which earned her the 2010 CHOA Golden Apple award – Honorable Mention, for her contributions and extraordinary accomplishments in Health Education. She also has been presenting at several interpreters conferences and webinars nationally for Interpreters continuing education. At the present she's a member of the Interpreting Shared Leadership council at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
Gulnara Akbarova was born in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, which is one of post-Soviet republics located near Turkey, Iran and Russia. She grew up bilingual in Russian and Azerbaijani. Gulnara graduated from the University of Foreign Languages in Azerbaijan and started working at the Turan news agency as an interpreter and translator in 1993. She worked with this Agency until 2016. During this period, she also worked as a freelance translator with various magazines and organizations. While working at the agency, Gulnara took multiple journalism trainings in Baku and London and started working as a foreign reporter and also wrote some investigative journalism pieces.
In 2009 her family moved to Dili, Timor Leste, where she worked as a teacher at the International School till 2011.
Her career as a medical interpreter started in 2014 in the United States after she took Medical Interpreter trainings and started working as a freelance onsite medical interpreter.
From 2016 to 2018 Gulnara worked as an administrator at Western Carolina Interpreter Network (WIN). She attended Cross Cultural Communications (CCC) Training of Trainers in June 2017 and conducted her first medical interpreter training in January 2018 at local MAHEC.
Gulnara joined Stratus Video company in April 2018 as a video remote interpreter and currently she does onsite, video and over-the-phone interpreting and medical interpreter trainings. Gulnara is a Board Director of the National Board for Certification of Medical Interpreters (NBCMI) since March 2019.
Maggie is a professionally trained English<>Chinese conference interpreter, certified court interpreter, certified medical interpreter, and published translator. She provided interpreting services for international organizations, government departments, Fortune 500 companies, top universities, law firms, and hospitals both in China and in the United States. She got MA in Conference Interpretation from Monterey Institute of International Studies in 2011. Actively participating in professional associations, she is not only a professional interpreter but also an advocate for the advancement of the interpreter profession.
Sarah is originally from St. Albans, VT and was first introduced to the Spanish language in the third grade. Her family later moved to central Honduras, where they served for years as missionaries. It was there that Sarah really cultivated her language skills and passion for Latin American culture. In 2009, Sarah returned to the U.S. and attended Asbury University, where she obtained a B.A. in Spanish and in Biochemistry. Upon graduation, she began working as a professional Spanish medical interpreter, which culminated with her obtaining her national board certification (CMI) credential in 2015 and becoming a board member of the Tennessee Association of Professional Interpreters and Translators (TAPIT) in 2017.
In total, Sarah possesses over 7 years of professional interpreting experience in places such as Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and has worked in a vast array of specialties and environments including trauma bays, emergency rooms, labor and delivery departments, and intensive care and surgery floors. While she is still an active interpreter, she also currently works at the Tennessee Language Center (TLC) where she manages and coordinates independent contracting interpreters who serve in medical, legal, and other public service fields. She is also the Lead Instructor of the Medical Interpreter Training Course (MITC), which is an intensive, collaborative effort between VUMC and TLC. Sarah can be reached at: [email protected].
Juana Horton is the CEO of Horton Interpreting Services Inc., one of the largest interpreting and translation company in Rhode Island, working in over 200 plus languages with over 200+ professional translators and interpreters. Ms. Horton, has over 21 years of practical application experience in translating and interpreting. Member of; IMIA and ATA. 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; RI Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce, 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.
Ana Arguedas (Cata) has been working in the interpretation industry since 2006. While working as a medical interpreter, she also developed the training program for non-experienced interpreters at Pacific Interpreters. She is a Certified Medical Interpreter since 2012, and also has ample experience evaluating interpreting skills and language proficiency, as well as training raters for LanguageLine Academy. Ana holds a licensure in Psychology from Universidad de Iberoamérica, in San José, Costa Rica.
Originally from Orenburg, Russia, Gulya studied linguistics at Orenburg State University. She has been working as a professional interpreter and translator in the United States for over four years. Gulya is a Certified Medical Interpreter, and a registered court interpreter in New York and New Jersey. She is currently part of a team putting together software solutions for professional interpreters, as well as courses aimed at training and certification. In her free time Gulya enjoys playing guitar, painting and illustration.
Staff
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Casita Wild, MS
Operations Manager
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Casita has worked on a number of research projects designed to measure health care disparities in diverse communities nationally and internationally. In 1999, Casita was part of a research team that evaluated the efficacy of Boston based community organizations servicing diverse HIV positive populations. Her passion for understanding the AIDS epidemic brought her to Cape Town, South Africa where she worked as a consultant to design and implement an HIV prevention curriculum in Pollsmore Prison.
After returning from South Africa, Casita earned a Master degree in Intercultural Relations with a focus on cultural competency in health care. In 2005 she was a training and organizational development intern at the Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA). She worked with the director of interpreter services to improve the hospitals cultural competency profile. She developed and implemented a training program for CHA interpreters designed to address issues in multicultural health care, including cultural barriers, and general access.
Casita also manages projects for the International Medical Interpreters Association. She conducted a national salary survey to document and track salary trends for medical interpreters over a five year period. Casita believes that medical interpreters are essential players to narrowing the health care disparities gap.
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Beverly North, MS
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Beverly North currently resides in Dayton, Ohio. She spent the first eighteen years of her life in the Denver, Colorado area, where she first learned Spanish. She met her husband, a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, while attending Oral Roberts University, and settled down in Tulsa. While helping her husband raise two sons, she worked as an administrative assistant for various oil companies in the Tulsa area, and then became a Spanish teacher. Beverly has taught Spanish, including her own beginner's curriculum, to levels pre-school through adults in both private and public schools, and is retired from teaching at Tulsa Community College.
In 2007, Beverly earned her Masters of Science degree from Oklahoma State University (Stillwater) in International Studies. She has made several trips to Mexico and has studied in Costa Rica. She is a past advisor for the Hispanic Student Association at Tulsa Community College and was active in several community organizations in the Tulsa area. As the registrar for the National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters, Beverly helps candidates navigate through the testing process toward national certification.
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Marissa Gearhart
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Marissa has been a part of the National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters since June, 2014. Marissa was previously the Community Health Educator at the Hispanic Health Coalition of Georgia. She was the primary health educator for two programs: a prenatal health promotion and diabetes education. Previously, Marissa was the Multicultural Program Coordinator for the Department of Multicultural Affairs at Grady Health System in Atlanta, Georgia. She provided outreach and health education in the community; developed collaborations and partnerships with Consulates and other local organizations to offer free health screenings. She is also a Certified Spanish Medical Interpreter.
A native English speaker born in Houston Texas, he studied Spanish and French in High School. Sean has traveled to Spain and worked as an escort interpreter in Costa Rica on multiple occasions. He spent a year as a staff interpreter at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta GA and three years developing and deploying interpreter educational programs for the Atlanta, GA area. He has served on the Board of Directors for the Medical Interpreter Network of Georgia (MING) as registrar and webmaster, as Chair of the IMIA Education Committee and Austin representative for the IMIA Texas chapter. Sean is currently with the National Board for Certification of Medical Interpreters (NBCMI) focusing on the facilitation of medical interpreter certification as well as serving as the current IMIA Outreach Coordinator.
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