The OHCIA Interpreter of the Year Award

English 2 Spanish (E2S) was founded because we recognized a widening gap in the language services available in Central Oregon and we sought to do our part to fill it. We quickly discovered the gap was much larger than anticipated and demand for our services grew dramatically from the outset. What started out as one person offering interpreter services in Spanish, rapidly grew into a business contracting with various Spanish speaking interpreters, as well as American Sign Language. Now E2S offers interpreter services in hundreds of languages, both locally and throughout the state of Oregon. 

As we look back on this journey and towards the years to come, we would like to introduce you to all the people that make the work of English 2 Spanish possible. We can’t think of a better way to start than by introducing you to our fearless leader, and E2S founder, Elizabeth Sanchez. 

Elizabeth was born in the United States, but mostly grew up in her parent’s homeland, Mexico.The experience of knowing life on both sides of the border has made her keenly aware of the hardships migrants to this country face, because she lived many of them, and this engendered in her a desire to dismantle the barriers non-English speakers face daily. 

Since the founding of E2S, Elizabeth has been a tireless advocate for language services as it is fundamental to accessing public services, and public life generally, as well as a fundamental human right. Her efforts have had a huge impact on language services offered throughout central Oregon, and this year her efforts and impact were recognized by the Oregon Health Care Interpreters Association when she was given the “Oregon Health Care Interpreters Association Interpreter of the Year Award.”  

The OHCIA Interpreter of the Year Award was created to “honor a Health Care Interpreter who exemplifies the profession and strives to serve their communities by providing health care equity through language access,” and takes into consideration being a role model to other interpreters, concern for the communities the interpreter serves, and interest in improving knowledge and advancement in the profession, among other things. 

We are especially proud of the fact Elizabeth was recognized for her work as she was nominated by her peers, as well as organizations she works with that have benefited from her advocacy. One nominee said this about Elizabeth’s work, “As a direct result of Elizabeth’s work, we have a regionally recognized language access program, language services contracts that are vetted with an eye for excellence and equity, training for all new staff in the appropriate use of language services, 100% of client facing materials translated into native languages, language access technologies and tools readily available and broad awareness of the language access needs of our service population throughout the organization. All this work has improved the experience of the people we serve in addition to advancing an equity framework within Health Services.” 

Please join us in congratulating Elizabeth!

Stay tuned for more posts about our incredible staff and contract interpreters and translators.