SAVE THE DATE
The 36th Annual CATI Conference will be on Saturday, May 4th, 2024 at UNC Charlotte, Charlotte, NC in the Cone Center.
“Working Globally, Networking Locally”
Full details will be available in February of 2024.
CATI 36 keynote speaker confirmed! We are extremely excited to announce that Andrea Henry will be our keynote for our 2024 CATI conference. Andrea is a CCHI Commissioner and nationally recognized subject matter expert on interpreting in healthcare so we are honored to be able to welcome her to our conference, and to our membership.
Call for proposals will be open until December 15th, 2023.
Click here to submit your proposal.
The conference will be followed by Conference After Party.
Keynote: Irreplaceable Interpreters: How Stepping Up and Stanading Out Can Keep Us Relevant in Our Fast-Changing Industry
Description:
We are at a crossroads in the language services industry. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is quickly becoming interwoven into the work of interpreters. If AI has the potential to negatively impact our job opportunities, then it may be time for us to take this bull by the horns. It starts with us. The time is now for stepping up our game and standing out. The presenter will argue that coming out of the shadows is key to raising our status and increasing the value others place on us. It could also save some jobs. Secondly, the presenter will share strategies that can be employed by interpreters, trainers, administrators, and agency owners. We can all use these strategies to advocate for the relevance of interpreters. She will share techniques for showing our value and how to teach others to appreciate the mental gymnastics occurring inside our amazing brains during the interpreted encounter. We know how demanding this job can be. We know that it requires far more cognitive skills than just speaking two languages. But others do not. In fact, most people assume this job requires us to just be bilingual and nice. But we can change that. We can help them understand our complex skill set. Finally, the presenter will argue that a national messaging campaign could help us move forward. If we learn how to articulate our skillset and the added value we bring to the table, there’s great potential to not only improve our status but also enhance our working conditions and pay. In the end, we might be a little less misunderstood and a lot more valued. And maybe, just maybe we can keep AI from invading too much of our workspace.
Presenter name:
Andrea R. Henry, CHI-Spanish
Presenter bio:
Andrea has enjoyed working professionally in the field of healthcare interpreting for over 25 years. Most of those years have been in face-to-face interpreting of dialogue in both adult and children’s healthcare settings. Interpreting on the frontlines is her biggest joy. Additionally, Andrea has learned a great deal from many roles in this field having worked as a freelance interpreter, full-time OPI interpreter, interpreter coordinator for two healthcare organizations, interpreter trainer, full-time F2F interpreter in a level 1 trauma center, and interpreter researcher. She has extensive experience in written translation (e.g., English > Spanish home care instructions), public speaking, and mentoring novice interpreters. Andrea’s areas of interest and expertise include specialization (e.g., pediatric cancer, pediatric heart defects, etc.), outside-the-box methods for navigating technical speech and sociolinguistic bumps, and value-added scripting for improved encounter interaction. Andrea is dedicated to moving our field forward by sharing strategies that improve communication and the patient’s clinical outcome, as well as raise our perceived value. She is strongly invested in keeping interpreters on the frontlines by raising awareness of our skill set, improving working conditions, and addressing the issue of fair pay. Andrea is the principal investigator on grant-funded research on development and validation of a tool that measures complexity and mental fatigue in the healthcare encounter. Finally, Andrea was named Commissioner for the CCHI in 2021 and is an active member of NCIHC.