Interpreting in Mental Health and Behavioral Health Services

Presenter bio: Until her recent retirement, Nora was coordinator and instructor for City College of San Francisco (CCSF) Healthcare Interpreter (HCI) Certificate Program. She has designed curricula, trained extensively, and is also a Spanish interpreter, holding a State of California Administrative Hearing Interpreter Certificate. Since 2011 Nora has been an author for Healing Voices. She has served on the Board of directors for California Healthcare Interpreting Association for 12 years, and is also on the Board for Walden Center and School, a small arts-based, peace-oriented primary school in Berkeley California. She also taught a college course, Trauma Response and Recovery for 8 years. Prior to her work at CCSF, Nora worked as a health educator for the San Francisco Department of Public Health in Community Behavioral Health Services, working closely with parents, families, and survivors of the political turmoil from Central America and providing community training in mental health promotion and trauma survivorship. She has traveled extensively, consulting in Latin America on HIV prevention and Belarus on overcoming the emotional trauma of exposure to radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl explosion. She received her Masters in Public Health from San Jose State University and her Bachelors’ in Latin American Studies and Anthropology from UC Santa Cruz. She is also a parent, a grandparent, and an advocate for health equity and human rights.