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Meet your instructors

Andrew Clifford

Dr. Clifford began working as a community interpreter in the 1990s before making the leap to conference interpreting. He is a former staff interpreter with the Government of Canada and remains active as a freelance interpreter. He is the author of "What does it take to train interpreters online?" (in Hansen-Schirra & Ahrens Translation Didactics, 2017), of “Interpreting Effects: From legislative framework to end users” (in Mezei, Simon & von Flotow Translation Effects, 2014), of “Healthcare interpreting and informed consent: What is the interpreter’s role in treatment decision-making” (TTR, 2007), and of “Putting the exam to the test: Psychometric validation and interpreter certification” (Interpreting, 2005).

At the MCI, Dr. Clifford teaches French, German, Portuguese and Spanish into English. He has also made it his mission to ensure all students learn the basics of Canadian politics, economics, and history.

Qjinti Barrios van der Valk

Before she became an interpreter, Qjinti Barrios van der Valk explored many worlds: she studied political science in Paris; worked for UNESCO in La Paz, Bolivia; managed a community centre in the French banlieue; and even had a brief stint in street theater! Over time, she was drawn to interpreting, graduating in 2008 from the conference interpreter training program at the Université de Genève. She then began her career as a free-lance conference interpreter in Paris and at the EU. She also taught at the Université Catholique de l’Ouest, in Angers, and at the Université de Strasbourg, and she undertook undergraduate and graduate studies in Linguistics and Quechua at the INALCO in Paris. Her working languages are French, Spanish, English and Italian. She left it all behind in 2014 to join the Glendon MCI team and to become a Torontonian. She hasn’t looked back since.

Helen Campbell

Ms. Campbell was a staff member of the Directorate-General for Interpretation of the European Commission (DG SCIC) in Brussels from 1973 until April 2011. A highly qualified and experienced interpreter trainer, she has aptitude-tested, taught and acted as examiner at university courses in and outside Europe and at EU tests and competitions. She continues to be a sought-after interpreter trainer and has gained a reputation as a lively, knowledgeable and entertaining public speaker. She is currently the Director of the National Network for Interpreting of the UK program ‘Routes into Languages’. Together with Jesús Baigorri Jalón, she edited five monographs on legal translation, including Translating the Law: Theoretical and Methodological Issues (Editorial Comares, 2013).

Ebru Diriker

Dr. Diriker is Professor of Translation and Interpreting Studies and specialises in sociological approaches to the study of conference interpreting. She is the author of De-/Re-Contextualizing Conference Interpreting: Interpreters in the Ivory Tower? (John Benjamins, 2004). An experienced conference interpreter and trainer, she is Honorary Research Fellow at the Center for Translation and Intercultural Studies in Manchester University and a member of the Quality Assessment Committee of the European Masters in Conference Interpreting (EMCI).

Andy Gillies

Andy Gillies has been a freelance conference interpreter since 1996 and works from French, German and Polish into English at a number of EU and European institutions as well as for private clients. Before training as an interpreter he trained and worked as a teacher of English as a foreign language.

In addition to Glendon Andy teaches at ISIT in Paris and has been a visiting trainer at schools in the UK, France, Poland, Germany and Portugal. Andy also gives further training courses for interpreters at EU institutions and for a range of national & international conference interpreters' associations.

Andy has written three books for students conference interpreting translated Rozan’s classic “La prise de notes...” into English.

Andy is also the curator of the websites Interpreter Training Resources https://interpretertrainingresources.eu/ and Interpreters CPD https://interpreterscpd.eu

Michelle Hof

Michelle Hof is Field Coordinator for Conference Interpreting and Course Director for Interpreting Technologies on the Glendon MCI in Toronto (Canada). She has held the position of SCIC Key Trainer on the University of La Laguna master’s program (Spain) since 2012. Michelle is a frequent contributor to panels on interpreting technology, having spoken at industry events in Berlin, Ottawa, Geneva, Brussels and elsewhere. She also offers short courses and workshops for interpreters and interpreter trainers on all five continents through AIIC and other institutional and academic partners. She became Coordinator of AIIC Training and Professional Development in 2020, a role that allows her to continue to foster training opportunities for interpreters worldwide. Michelle speaks English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese. Originally from Canada, she now calls the beautiful island of Tenerife home.

Piet Koene

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Laura Vaughn Holcomb

Laura's interpreting career began in the halls of hospitals. Certified Healthcare and Medical Interpreter (CHI, CMI), Master in Conference Interpreting from Glendon College in Toronto and now adjunct professor of the Virtual Healthcare Interpreting Practicum, Laura also co-authored and led the first nationwide survey study on interpreting and translation in Mexico

Laura divides her time between the co>lab peer practice intensive, Seven Sisters Interpreter Training, where she works with healthcare, education and conference interpreters "who take it personally" (like she does!), and String & Can Multilingual Online where she interprets, manages events, and provides tech planning and support for multilingual online events. 

Laura is a passionate advocate for the interpreting field, language access, tenderness in all things, and is all about making virtual interpreting environments work better. Raised in the US South, she is currently based in Guatemala City after a long stint in Minas Gerais, Brazil. More about Laura's work here.

Katty Kauffman

Katty Kauffman is a conference and legal interpreter, a graduate of Pedro de Valdivia School of Law in Santiago, Chile and the Certificate Program in Comparative US/Latin American Legal Reforms at Washington College of Law at American University in Washington, DC. A member of AIIC, TAALS and NAJIT, she is a contributor to the 2nd Edition of Fundamentals of Court Interpretation and a member of the Editorial Board of the 2nd Edition of Sandro Tomasi's Criminal Law Dictionary. A federally, Maryland and Florida certified court interpreter, she is a frequent speaker across the U.S. on the criminal procedure reforms that have swept Latin America. Katty is former staff interpreter with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida and currently works as a freelance court and conference interpreter from her home base in Washington, DC where she serves a number of private sector and institutional clients, including the U.S. Department of State and the Organization of American States in addition to local and Federal courts.

website: www.kattykauffman.com

Effrossyni Fragkou

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Ahmed El Khamloussy

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Jeffrey Henson

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Emma Zhang

Ms. Zhang is an active conference interpreter who has extensive experience working with Canada’s three levels of government. She has also interpreted for a large number of industries in the private sector, and for civil society organizations such as universities and associations. From September 2013 to July 2014, she worked as a Teaching Assistant at the MCI before becoming a full-time faculty member. Prior to relocating to Canada, she was a staff interpreter at Sinophone Interpretation, a member of Calliope in China from 2012 to 2013. She holds a Professional Diploma in Conference Interpreting (with Distinction) from the Shanghai International Studies University (a United Nations MoU program).

Anchi Lue

Ms. Lue is a conference interpreter accredited with the European institutions and the United Nations. Her active languages are Chinese and English. She received her M.A. in interpretation and translation from Fu Jen Catholic University (Taipei) and her B.A. in art history from Cornell. Her professional experience also includes working as a broadcast journalist in Asia. Ms. Lue has been an instructor at Glendon College since 2012 and ISIT (Paris) since 2020. She also taught conference interpreting at SDI Munich.

Anne Zeng

Anne Zeng has been teaching Court Interpreting (Mandarin/English) since 2015 at Glendon college, York University, in the Master of Conference Interpreting Program. She is an experienced and reputable court interpreter working at all levels of courts in the federal and provincial (Ontario) courts in Canada. Her skills and professionalism are well appreciated by the courts and clients alike. She brings first-hand court interpreting experience to the classrooms.

Hans Werner Mühle

Mr. Mühle has been a freelance conference interpreter for more than 35 years, after having trained at the prestigious Heidelberg School of Interpreters, where he has also taught for 25 years.He has taught at a number of Masters in  Conference Interpreting in La Laguna, Zurich, Johannesburg and ITI-RI at Strasbourg University. He has  been a trainer at Glendon MCI since its inception.He works for International and European Institutions, like the European Parliament, the Commission and the European Court in Luxembourg as well as the Council of Europe. He is a member of AIIC and  has given a number of Capacity Building and Professionalization courses with AIIC Training in Santiago de Chile, Lima and Quit, as well as Mexico. He also works as a freelancer on the private market.As he also trained as an opera singer, he offers voice coaching seminars for interpreters.His working languages are Spanish, English, German, French and Italian.

Piet Koene

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Marcelle Castro

Marcelle Castro earned a bachelor's degree in Translation in 2002 (University of Brasilia). She holds two Masters' Degrees, one in Language Studies from PUC-Rio, and one in Intercultural Studies from Universitat Rovira i Virgili, in Spain. She has been working as a translator and conference interpreter since 2002 with a broad range of experience in different fields. Training interpreters is one of her passions. In recent years her focus has been on the online environment as a platform for training. She is the co-founder of Interpret2b and an instructor at Glendon College MCI.

Mylene Queiroz Franklin

Mylene Queiroz Franklin’s evolution into a passionate defender of patients’ rights began in the exams rooms of a Boston hospital where she interpreted for Portuguese-speaking patients. Back in Brazil, Mylene got straight to work. She carried out the nation’s first medical interpreting needs assessment, which she published as her Master’s thesis in 2011, alerting the country to the glaring lack of services.
She now trains up-and-coming interpreters. Among other courses, she designed the curriculum for Glendon College’s Healthcare Interpreting course as part of the Master of Conference Interpreting. She was the Brazil Chapter Chair of the foremost healthcare interpreting organization in the world: the International Medical Interpreters Association (IMIA). She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences and a Master’s in Translation Studies from the University of Santa Catarina. She has taught several interpreting courses in the healthcare sector, and is currently co-founder and co-director of Interpret2b – a renowned interpreting training program in Brazil .

Tatiana B. Raineri

Tatiana Raineri has as alma-matter the former Faculdade Ibero-americana de Letras e Ciências Humanas, with a BA in English <> Portuguese Translation and Interpretation, and a Teaching Degree in Portuguese/English. She is also Certified in Translation by STIBC (Society of Translators and Interpreters o British Columbia) and CTTIC (Canadian Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters Council), and holds accreditations in Community, Health Care, Immigration and Court Interpreting from Vancouver Community College, being active and well-renowned in these fields for the last 20 years, across Canada. Tatiana has been teaching English <> Portuguese Court Interpreting with the MCI program since its inception, in 2012. She has developed all the teaching materials for this course and enjoys seeing the progress her students make in her course. Tatiana likes to say she not only teaches interpretation, but she also trains colleagues and makes friends for life.

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Tatiana de Oliveira

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Yuliya Tsaplina

Yuliya Tsaplina has been working as a freelance conference interpreter for more than twenty years. After graduating from Ecole Supérieure des Interprètes et des Traducteurs in Paris, France, she started her career in New York, followed by a move to Washington D.C., then Paris and, most recently, to Bangkok.  Her diverse set of experiences gives her unique insights into each region of the global interpretation market.  She has had the privilege to interpret for both private and institutional clients, gaining an in-depth understanding of the differences in interpretation styles required by international organizations, corporate clients, and NGOs.  An active member of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC), Yuliya has served in a number of roles, including Treasurer of AIIC USA and a member of the VEGA Network for young interpreters. An experienced interpreter trainer, Yuliya taught Year 1 and Year 2 Masters in Conference Interpretation students at ISIT in Paris from 2016 to 2020, and at Glendon College since 2008.  When not interpreting, she is busy conducting workshops on child bilingualism and coaching parents and teachers on the educational, psychological, cognitive and social aspects of bilingualism.

Harry Ungoed-Thomas