Melanie Fontes Rainer, Director of the Office of Civil Rights, DHHS, Announced as NCIHC Keynote

WASHINGTON - July 6, 2023 - PRLog -- The  National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC) will hold its First Language Access Congress on September 28-29, 2023 as a virtual event. We are pleased to announce Melanie Fontes Rainer, Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services as the Keynote Speaker.

Ms. Fontes Rainer leads the Department's enforcement of federal civil rights and privacy laws and directs related policy and strategic initiatives. Previously, she served as Counselor to Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra, providing strategy guidance to the Secretary on issues pertaining to civil rights, patient privacy, reproductive health, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), competition in healthcare, equity, and the private insurance market.  Before joining the Biden-Harris Administration, she served as the Special Assistant to the Attorney General and Chief Health Care Advisor at the California Department of Justice, where she led a national team to save the Affordable Care Act.  During this time, she also facilitated the creation of a new office, the Health Care Rights and Access, devoted to proactively advancing laws pertaining to health care, civil rights, privacy, competition, and consumer protection.  She also served as the U.S. Senate Senior Aide and Women's Policy Director to Chair Patty Murray on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and the Budget Committees,

Ms. Frontier Rainer holds a J.D. from the University of Arizona, M.S.M.E. from the City University of New York, Brooklyn College, and a B.S.B.A. from the University of Arizona.

NCIHC President Erika Shell Castro stated, "We are honored to have a keynote speaker so informed and engaged in language access as Ms. Fontes Rainer. This is particularly significant to us as NCIHC is celebrating its 25th Anniversary." The Congress theme is "Going Back to the Future" and our robust program will highlight the founding members and offer numerous workshops, panel discussions and Language Access Cafés roundtables that will feature how we have seen an increase in language access since our founding, while brainstorming what challenges we have to continue promoting language access  in our future.

For more information about this event, write to amm@ncihc.org or visit the Congress website www.ncihc.org.