About Yuliya Speroff

My name is Yuliya Speroff and I created this blog to help fellow medical interpreters and those who are thinking of becoming an interpreter access information and resources. I am hoping this blog will be equally useful for those who are only starting out and seasoned interpreters.

Here are some facts about me:

• I am a Russian interpreter with over 10 years of experience based in Seattle, Washington.  I am a Core Certification Healthcare Interpreter™ (CoreCHI™). I also hold Washington State DSHS certification of Medical Interpreter and Social Services Interpreter.
• I was named named Interpreter of the Year by CHIA (California Healthcare Interpreting Association) in 2021.
• I  enjoy doing conference presentations and providing interpreter training workshops. To learn more, visit the Interpreter Training section.
• I am passionate about professionalization of medical interpreting and I believe that getting certified is a great step towards this goal.
• I believe it is important to raise awareness of language access for individuals with limited English proficiency. In my current job as a medical interpreter supervisor at a major Seattle hospital, I do this daily by promoting Interpreter Services Department, managing translation projects and educating staff on partnering with medical interpreters. Outside of my work, I do this by writing in this blog, sharing information on social media, giving talks to students, and using all other available platforms. For example, I appeared in American Translator Association (ATA) podcast Inside Specialization. You can listen to the THE ATA PODCAST EPISODE 68: Inside Specialization-Medical Interpreting here.
• I am a member of NOTIS (Northwest Translators and Interpreters Society), CHIA (California Healthcare Interpreting Association) and NCIHC (National Council of Interpreting in Healthcare).
• I first started working as an interpreter while living in my hometown of Novosibirsk, Russia. In my capacity as an interpreter, I interpreted at a variety of events including conferences, hospital lectures, surgical workshops, TV interviews, business negotiations, and auditing visits using consecutive, simultaneous and chuchotage modes. During this time, I worked with Russian and multinational companies including AstroZeneca,  20th Century Fox, Meshalkin Research Institute of Pathology of Circulation and the International Olive Council. Notable assignments include acting as a personal interpreter for Jack Canfield (author of Chicken Soup for the Soul), performing simultaneous interpretation at a World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies Educational Conference, performing voice-overs for private marketing screenings of films for 20^th Century Fox, and acting as an interpreter for Kobi Levi, a celebrity shoe designer, during his TV appearances on news and talk shows.

• As soon as I moved to the US, I started working towards my certification as a medical interpreter. To that end, I  completed the two-semester, 104-hour Medical Interpretation Training Program offered by the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute in partnership with Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
• My interpreting experience in the US includes working as an interpreter with a number of agencies in Nashville, Tennessee and Seattle, Washington. Interpreting assignments have included a range of contexts and topics, including hospital appointments, surgeries, developmental therapy sessions, counseling sessions, and school conferences.
• My other qualifications include the following:
  • Diploma in Teaching Russian as a Foreign Language, Russian Language Centre of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University
  • DELTA (Cambridge Diploma in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)
  • CELTA (Cambridge Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)
  • MA in Business Management from Moscow Institute of Economics and Finance
• This is my second professional blog: my first one, ELT resources, and tips can be found here. 

If you are on Facebook, consider joining my group Healthcare Interpreters and Translators in Washington State and liking my page.

You can contact me using the contact form at the bottom of this page. You can also find me on LinkedIn.

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