NCIHC calls for 2025 Nominations for Language Access Champion

March 5, 2025 - PRLog -- The National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC) has opened up nominations for the 2025 Language Access Champion Award!

This prestigious award honors an individual, program, or organization that has made a significant impact in advancing language access in health care.

The selected honoree will be announced during our Annual Membership Meeting (AMM) and formally recognized in person at the NCIHC Congress, taking place September 25–27, 2025, in Little Rock, Arkansas.

You can make a nomination and view the criteria here: https://www.ncihc.org/la-champion-nominations-2025

Previous Winners of the Language Access Champion Award include:

2024
Mila Golovine, President and CEO, MasterWord, Houston Texas

2023
Natalya Mytareva, Executive Director, CCHI, Washington DC

2022
Melinda Paras, Owner of Paras and Associates, Berkeley CA

2021
Ira Sen Gupta, Executive Director at Cross Cultural Health Care Program, Seattle WA

2020, no award given

2019
Jorge Ungo, Language Access Advocate, Houston TX

2018
Julie Burns, Santa Rosa, CA

2017
Shari Gold-Gomez, Director of Interpreter Services, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Boston, MA

2016
Erika Shell Castro, Director of Interpreting Services, Language Access Network (LAN)

2015
Bruce T. Downing, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Linguistics / Former Director of the Program in Translation and Interpreting, University of Minnesota
Maria-Paz Beltran Avery, PhD, Managing Project Director, Education Development Center, Newton, MA
Tracy Young, Language Access Services Coordinator, Barton Health, Lake Tahoe, NV