Lillian Garcia Peterkin, CDI, was a valued member of the National Interpreter Education Center (NIEC) staff whose untimely death touched us all. She was born to Puerto Rican parents in New Haven, Connecticut. She graduated from the American School for the Deaf in 1981. She received a Bachelor’s degree in ASL/English Interpreting from Northeastern University in 2001. As former Communication & Outreach Coordinator of the NIEC, Lillian facilitated communication and reporting among the NCIEC’s 5 work teams. She was an active member of both the Deaf Interpreting work team and Deaf Advocacy Training work team. Lillian presented trainings to Deaf community members on topics such as medical interpreting, Deaf interpreting, and consumer rights to interpreting services. In her work prior to joining the NCIEC, Lillian spent ten years as coordinator of interpreting services in Massachusetts and Connecticut, providing supervision, outreach, mentorship, and education to interpreters. Lillian was a proud mother of two daughters and resided in Hamden, CT.

Cathy Cogen, was a long-time member of the Northeastern University (NU) faculty and professional staff, was the former director of the National Interpreter Education center. She retired from NU in 2015. Cathy was the first director of the NU ASL Program from 1977-1986, when she was privileged to have, as colleagues and friends, Marie Jean Philip, Nancy V. Becker, and other luminaries in our field. Cathy was instrumental in the Conference of Interpreter Trainers’ early efforts to establish the National Interpreter Education Standards and the interpreting education program accreditation process now conducted by the Commission on Collegiate Interpreter Education. As a community advocate and organizer, Cathy co-led lobbying efforts to further the political aims of the Deaf and Deaf-Blind communities of Massachusetts. She holds a BA in linguistics from UC Berkeley and a M.Ed. in higher educational administration from Northeastern, and she has been a certified interpreter for more than 30 years.

Diana Doucette, CI/CT, was the director of the Regional Interpreter Education Center at Northeastern University. She co-led the Deaf Interpreting and Trilingual ASL/Spanish/English Interpreting initiatives of the NCIEC. Today, she leads the Northeastern University Center of Atypical Languages. Diana holds a BS in Human Resources Management and a M.Ed. In Adult and Organizational Learning.