NCIHC Language Access Congress 2026

AGENDA

Times listed are US Eastern

Thursday, September 24, 2026

2:00–4:00 pm - Hospital Visit (registration is required). Care New England Women & Infants Hospital Interpreter Services Department

6:30–9:00 pm - Welcome Reception | Meet & Greet, WXYZ Bar (in the Aloft Hotel lobby)

Friday, September 25, 2026

NCIHC Language Access Congress 2026
Aloft Hotel, 191 Dorrance St, Providence, RI 02903

8:00–8:45 am - Registration, CIC Providence, 225 Dyer St, Providence, RI 02903

8:15–9:00 am - Full Breakfast, CIC Cafe Lounge, 2nd Floor

9:00–9:15 am - Welcome Address, Natalya Myrateva, Emcee & Andy Schwieter, President NCIHC CIC Assembly Hall, 2nd Floor

9:15–10:30 am - Keynote - Lisa Diamond, MD, MPH, MHS, FACP, Associate Attending, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Dept. of Medicine Beyond Concordance: Building the Clinician-Interpreter Partnership. CIC Assembly Hall, 2nd Floor

10:30–10:45 am - Break/Transition

Session Block 1
10:45–11:30 am 

Lessons Learned from the Field: Reflections on Successful Partnerships with Medical Interpreters in Clinical Care, Education, Research, and Program Development
Facilitator: Jessica Goldhirsch; Panelists: Nina Scott, Luciana Canestraro, Allison Wise, Melad Soliman, Alexandra Dobie
CIC Assembly Hall, 2nd Floor

Your Voice Is a Policy Tool: How Healthcare Interpreters and Advocates Can Shape the Laws and Policies That Govern Language Access
Presenters: Liliana Dinu, Joana Ramos, Fabiola Rojas Alvarado
Watch Hill

From Language Access to Patient Outcomes: Building Accountable Systems in Healthcare
Presenter: Natasha Davis
Innovators’ Lounge

11:30–12:45 pm - Lunch & Visit our Sponsors, CIC Cafe Lounge, 2nd Floor

Session Block 2
12:45–2:00 pm

Beyond Interpretation: Building a Qualified Bilingual Workforce in Healthcare Systems
Presenters: Madelyn Lorena Jiménez-Torres, Kimberly Pineda
CIC Assembly Hall, 2nd Floor

Orchestrating Equity: Coordinated Strategies for System Wide Language Access Transformation
Presenters: Justin T Menke, N. Chineye (Chi) Anako
Watch Hill

Managing Dual Role for Language Professionals: Strategies for Interpreting Versus Translating
Presenter: Bindiya Jha
Innovators’ Lounge

2:00–2:15 pm - Break/Transition

Session Block 3
2:15–3:30 pm

Language Justice in Action: Mapping the Future of Responsible AI-Augmented Translation and Interpretation in Healthcare
Presenters: Marina Persoglia Bell, Vonessa Costa, Alegna Zavatti
CIC Assembly Hall, 2nd Floor

Reading the Room: Contextual Judgment, Communicative Equity, and the Irreplaceable Human Interpreter
Presenters: Dr. Frank Mann Dolce, Liliana Dinu
Watch Hill

Language Access Plan Development: Building Plans That Actually Work in Healthcare
Presenter: Debbie Lesser
Innovators’ Lounge

3:30–3:45 pm - Break/Transition

Session Block 4
3:45–5:00 pm

The Future of Ethics
Facilitator: Giovanna Carriero-Contreras, AAITE; Panelists: Janis Palma, NAJIT Christina Green, ATA, Andy Schwieter, NCIHC
CIC Assembly Hall, 2nd Floor

Promoting Health Equity Through Language Access: Case Study from Harborview Medical Center
Presenters: Yuliya Speroff, Jean-Jacques Kayembe
Watch Hill

Beyond Words: Human Cognitive Skills at the Heart of Interpreting Performance
Presenters: Jorge U. Ungo, Mateo Rutherford
Innovators’ Lounge

6:30–9:00 pm - Interpretini Reception and the Language Access Champion Award
(registration is required)
Brown University, Brown Faculty Club

Saturday, September 26, 2026

8:00–8:40 am - Full Breakfast, CIC Cafe Lounge, 2nd Floor

Session Block 5
9:00–10:00 am

We Were Never Monolingual: Rethinking Healthcare Systems and Leading Language Access Transformation
Presenter: Carol Gizell Velandia Pardo
Innovators’ Lounge

When Language Access Plans Aren’t Enough: What Behavioral Health Systems Must Do Next
Presenters: Cecily Jane Rodriguez, Anne Walters, Tanyika Mobley
CIC Assembly Hall, 2nd Floor

Voices That Must Be Heard: Linguistic Equity and the Interpreter-SLP Partnership in Medically Complex Care
Presenters: Dr. Aigerim (Aya) Aliakparova, Dr. Panayiota Senekkis-Florent
Watch Hill

10:00–10:10 am - Break 

Grow Our Own: Leveraging the Hospital as a Classroom to Train the Next Generation of Medical Interpreters
Presenter: Paul Spacek
Innovators’ Lounge

Fluency in Systems - Expanding Your On-Site Language Access Team in the World of Business and Political Interest
Presenter: Evan Lee-Ferrand
CIC Assembly Hall, 2nd Floor

From Classroom to Certification: Aligning Training, Credentialing, and Career Sustainability
Presenter: Valeria Barraza Delmar
Watch Hill

11:10–11:20 am - Break

Session Block 7
11:20–12:20 pm

The Revised National Code of Ethics for Interpreters in Health Care: Shaping the Future of Ethical Practice
Presenters: Maria-Paz Beltran Avery, Lorena Castillo, Jane Crandall Kontrimas, Analia Lang, Fabiola Munafo
CIC Assembly Hall, 2nd Floor

Your Language Access Program Is Running, But Is It Working?
Presenter: Dr. Julie Mills
Innovators’ Lounge

Holding AI Vendors Accountable: A Practical Toolkit for Healthcare Language Access Leaders
Presenter: Eliana Lobo
Watch Hill

12:20–12:25 pm - Quick Break