About Us

Our Learning Philosophy

Based on the works of L.S. Vygotsky and others applying his theories to education, our approach is informed by these principles:

• learning occurs through productive activity

• mastery is achieved through guided dialogue (scaffolding)

• collaboration with peers and mentors in a safe environment facilitates this process

• cognition, emotion, and culture are interrelated and significantly impact learning

    Our goal is to foster interpreting communities that wish to discuss their work and value growth, that respect each learner’s zone of development, and  that seek to provide the highest quality services to consumers.

  To this end, we offer a variety of holistic training approaches and formats that recognize and honor the diversity of our communities.

The Director

      Betty M. Colonomos, currently serving as Director of the Bilingual Mediation Center, is a fluent ASL/English bilingual. Her academic training  has been in Deaf Education/Speech Pathology (undergraduate), Counseling (graduate) and Linguistics (doctoral.)  Betty was awarded the Masters Comprehensive Skills Certificate (MCSC) from RID in 1980.  She was the second recipient of the Mary Stotler Award for excellence in Interpreter Education from CIT.  Betty has chaired many national committees on standards and evaluation of interpreters, most recently serving her term as  co-chair on the CIT/ASLTA Task Force on Interpreting Standards.

      Betty is well known as an educator of interpreters and language consultant.  In addition to developing the most widely used model for teaching processes used in interpreting, she has consulted with schools and the legal system as an expert on linguistic and cultural issues impacting on the Deaf Community. Through her center, she provides services in the area of instruction, consultation, cross-cultural mediation, language assessment, interpretation, translation, and curriculum development. 

Co-Presenters

        We do work with other professionals in the arena of teaching, interpretation, and assessment. These colleagues are of the highest caliber and meet or exceed our standards. Specific information will be shared at the time of contract negotiation.