Leadership Institute for Interpreters
Embracing Change: Cultivating Leaders
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Learning is like rowing upstream; not to advance is to drop back.
- Chinese proverb
The Leadership Institute Online Education Center is proud to introduce our online educators!
LaVona Andrew, M.A.
RID CI, CT, NIC
Interpreter /Interpreter Educator / State Affiliate Chapter Leader
LaVona Andrew is a life-long learner, interpreter and educator. A native ASL user, she has been interpreting community assignments since she was twelve years old. She manages a national team of VRI interpreters and serves on the Board of Directors for Deaf Center of Idaho. As a sign language professional, LaVona teaches ASL courses at Boise State University and leads interpreting workshops nationwide. Her specialties include sign-to-voice, medical, mental health and video interpreting.
LaVona holds national certification as an interpreter and a transliterator from the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, and she earned certification from the National Council on Interpreting. During the Sign Language Performance Interview, she merited full marks. She received an A.A. in Public Speaking and World Relations from Cottey College, and her B.Sc. in Social Science Teaching from Brigham Young University. She completed an M.A. in Education—Curriculum and Instruction (Second Language Acquisition) at Boise State University. Currently, LaVona is president of Idaho RID.
RID CI, CT, Educational Interpreter Authorization (CO)
Interpreter /Presenter
Jennifer first learned sign language in her home state of Iowa while working as a Recreational Therapist in a psychiatric hospital. Since her graduation from Front Range Community College’s(FRCC) Interpreter Preparation Program (Westminster, CO) in 1995, she has been working full-time as a sign language interpreter in a variety of settings. She enjoyed eight years of educational interpreting in the middle school and high school settings and subsequently taught the Educational Interpreting class at FRCC for four years. Jennifer continues to tutor IPP students, and work as a post-secondary, community, and video relay interpreter.
In her free time Jennifer enjoys yoga, painting, hiking, camping, walking her dog and drinking lattes!
Karen Boyd, M.A.
Bilingual Educator
Karen Boyd was born deaf to Deaf parents in Wheeling, West Virginia, and the family moved to Colorado when Karen was four years old. Karen attended Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind in Colorado Springs and graduated from Denver East High School.
In 1994, Karen founded the American Sign Language curriculum course at Metropolitan State College of Denver, at the Auraria campus, and since then, she has taught ASL courses at this and other institutions. At this institution, she received her bachelor’s degree in Community Services Administration with emphasis of non-profit organization.
Besides teaching ASL at other institutions, Karen is also a specialist in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services at the University of Colorado-Boulder. There, she has taken courses in linguistics, education, and psychology, and received her masters’ degree in bilingual with the School of Education in August of 2006.
RID SC:L, CI, CT, CSC
Interpreter / Master Mentor
LeWana Clark is a bi-state resident of Colorado and Massachusetts. Although she lives most of the year in a home facing the front range of the Rocky Mountains with her life partner, BJ Wood, she travels regularly back to the Boston area for work. She grew up in Amarillo, Texas and at the tender age of 10 began taking her first sign language class. Her early interpreter training came from a phenomenal mentor and members of the Deaf community because Interpreter Training/Preparation Programs were few and far between in the early 1970s. By the time she turned 20, she was nationally certified with her CSC. She then graduated from the University of Texas, Austin with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with a focus in Management. And over the last 26 years, she has also achieved her RID certifications of Certificate of Interpretation, Certificate of Transliteration, and Specialty Certificate: Legal. Adding to her accomplishments, she completed the Master Mentorship Program at Northeastern University in April 2005.
LeWana is actively involved in the Deaf and Interpreter communities. She currently is a member of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf and the National Association of the Deaf, serves on several committees with the Colorado Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, is the co-founder of Allies Colorado, interprets for community and legal assignments as well as for VRS, teaches at the Interpreter Preparation Program at Front Range Community College, designs curriculum and teaches for the Interpreter Paradigm Training Series with DOVE: Advocacy Services for Abused Deaf Women and Children, designs curriculum and teaches a series of legal trainings that incorporate mentoring as a component of learning and is working with a couple of states on training topics, minimum credentials, mentoring requirements and standards of excellence for interpreters working in court and legal settings.
Chris Grooms
RID CI, CT, Texas BEI Level IV
Interpreter Instructor / Interpreter / Presenter
Chris Grooms has been in the interpreting profession for more than 18 years and holds RID Certification: CI and CT as well as Texas BEI Level IV. He is a strong advocate of the philosophy and pursuit of lifelong learning and is currently employed by Communication Axess Ability Group in Houston, TX as the Professional Development Coordinator where he coordinates and provides workshops/training for interpreters’ skill enhancement. Chris is the current President of Texas Society of Interpreters for the Deaf and he has served at the local, state, regional and national levels.
RID CI, CT
Interpreter Instructor / Interpreter / Presenter
Marcie Murphy has been interpreting for fifteen years in a variety of settings including educational, community, international, video and conference interpreting. She attained an Interpreting degree in Boston, and participated in the year long Visiting Interpreter Program (VIP) at Gallaudet University. Ms. Murphy was a staff interpreter at Gallaudet University and a faculty member at San Antonio College in their Interpreter Training Program. Marcie is currently an adjunct faculty member at Pikes Peak Community College. She has been both a mentee and mentor and presents on a variety of workshop topics.
RID CI, CT, NAD IV
Founder, Leadership Institute
Amie is the founder of the Leadership Institute and currently presents both in-person and via the Online Education Center's WebShops. Her primary topic focus is on the intra and interpersonal aspects of interpreting and leadership in the field of interpreting. For more information about Amie click here.
Barbara-Jean Slopey
RID CI, CT
Interpreter Coordinator / Interpreter / Mentor
Barbara-Jean Slopey lives outside of Boulder, Colorado with her life-partner and three precious dogs. When not working at the University of Colorado at Boulder as the Interpreter Coordinator, she spends time at her mountain condo participating in the sport of the current season; skiing, snowboarding, kayaking, hiking, golfing, 4-wheeling and the like. In other words, her primary goal in life is to enjoy it!
She was first exposed to ASL as an undergrad at Rochester Institute of Technology where she earned a BS in Marketing. She later used her ASL skills to teach skiing to deaf people in Winter Park, Colorado. During that time, her mentor and deaf friends encouraged her to go back to school and she received an AAS from the Interpreter Preparation Program at Front Range Community College in 1991.
Barbara-Jean is actively involved in the Colorado Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (CRID). She has served as Chair of the Mentor Committee and is the current Chairperson of the Diane Alexis Memorial Scholarship committee whose task it is to provide educational advancement opportunities through scholarship to interpreters, IPP students and the deaf community. She is also involved in CRID’s “Navigating the Gap Program” which provides support and instruction in ASL for pre-certified interpreters and recent graduates of the IPP. She is also a member of RID and holds a CI and CT.
In addition, Barbara-Jean has served as a past chairperson and is a current member of the Colorado/Wyoming Interpreter Coordinator committee, under the State of Colorado Consortium of Support Services for Students with Disabilities. This committee has established Standard Practices for Interpreting Services in the Post Secondary Education and the Interpreter Handbook for Interpreters in Post Secondary Education for the states of Colorado and Wyoming.
Mentoring and teaming are Barbara-Jean’s passions in the field of interpreting. She provides workshops in both areas; her work draws extensively on her experience as a mentor for Sorenson Communications and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
CI, CT, SC:L, Master Mentor
Founder, Signs of Development
Performance Consultant
Lynne is the founder of Signs of Development, a professional development organization specializing in providing distance mentoring, workshops, and training on all aspects of interpreting.
She established and administers online study groups supporting interpreters to prepare for the various aspects of certification. She is most proud of having supported over 750 interpreters to successfully pass various aspects of the interpreting certification processes.
She is currently the Project Coordinator for Gallaudet University Regional Interpreter Education Consortium’s 3 STEP Mentoring Training Project and teaches business for DeVry Online. She is currently A.B.D. working toward her Ph.D. in Training & Performance Improvement.