Curriculum Team

Instructional Designer

Juliana Apfel, MS, CDI, is an educator, trainer, consultant, and founder of IGNIX LLC. She serves as Chair of RID’s Legal Interpreters Member Section and works across legal, forensic, medical, post-secondary, and other high-stakes interpreting contexts. She specializes in legal interpreting, interrogation analysis, ethical decision-making, interpreter readiness, and professional training. Juliana brings experience as a practitioner and educator, with a focus on strengthening interpreters’ understanding of complex systems, professional judgment, and specialized practice.

Co-PI/Subject Matter Expert

Dr. Lori Whynot is a Professor of Interpreting and Director of the ASLIE Program at Northeastern University in Boston. She has been interpreting over 3 decades and earned her PhD in Linguistics at Macquarie University in Sydney Australia. Lori is certified by RID (US), NAATI (Australia), WFD/WASLI, and holds US legal interpreting qualifications. An author of publications in interpreting and sign language linguistics, she is committed to life-long learning and promoting high-quality teaching, interpreting practice, and research. She will advise the project Director/Co-PI, liaise with College of Social Science and Humanities Dean, lead the development of the supervising partner training module, review module content, and serve as a reflective practice session facilitator.

Subject Matter Experts

As a senior leader at Vancro, Ms. Brunner works across the organization to support strategic initiatives, partnerships, accessibility services, and workforce development. Vancro is a nationwide, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business providing accessibility services through an extensive network of interpreters and community partners. This national reach positions Vancro to help connect participants with meaningful field placements and professional learning opportunities across the country. The company’s approach is grounded in community responsiveness, quality, professional growth, and ensuring that Deaf and DeafBlind individuals receive services that reflect their communication preferences and needs. As a Partnering Agency, Vancro will support Northeastern’s work by helping bridge interpreter education with real-world practice, mentorship, and workforce opportunities.

Dr. Jeremy L. Brunson is an applied sociologist and sign language interpreter focused on legal interactions. With over two decades of experience in civil, probate, criminal, and juvenile matters, his work spans local courts, U.S. District Courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Holding a Ph.D. in Sociology alongside degrees in Justice & Social Inquiry and Disability Studies, he has taught undergraduate and graduate students and published and presented on legal interpreting, research methodologies, the interdisciplinary field of interpreting studies, video relay service, identity politics, the commodification of access, and the invisible work of Deaf people in the interpreting process.

Margie English is a Deaf interpreter and self-employed professional who manages several signed language Bible translation programs. Based in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, she has worked in telecommunications relay services and the translation and interpreting field since the early 2000s. She has contributed to legal interpreting training curricula and served on a task force that recommended a new legal interpreting certification program for RID. Margie holds a BA in English and Writing from Gallaudet University, completed graduate studies in Business Administration and Marketing, and is pursuing a doctorate in Interpretation Studies at Gallaudet. She also serves Deaf communities through nonprofit boards and committees.

Jo Linda Powell Greenfield, NAD-Master V, TC, CI, CT, NIC-Master, SC:L, earned her initial RID certificate in 1984. During her career she was honored to be the first interpreter to earn NIC Master Level and the first Black interpreter to earn RID SC:L.

With degrees in English/Sign Language Interpreting, extensive training in judicial interpreting and theatre interpreting at Juilliard, she serves the Interpreting and Deaf communities as an interpreter, educator, mentor, and role model.

She works across business, conference, government, higher education, legal and medical settings. Outside of work, she enjoys coffee, tea, reading, and the outdoors.

Schawn Hardesty, M.A., CI, CT, NIC Advanced, SC: Legal. Lifelong learning is at the heart of Schawn’s work. She had the opportunity to serve as the Director of Operations for the UNC-Project CLIMB and Project Director of the Improving Rural Interpreter Skills Project (UNC-IRIS) and is honored to be appointed to the Washington State Supreme Court’s Interpreter and Language Access Commission as its ASL Interpreter Representative. Schawn draws on her professional knowledge and personal experience to promote each learner’s opportunity for cura personalis, or development of the whole person.

Sandra McClure is a nationally certified American Sign Language (ASL)-English interpreter, educator, and mentor with NIC, SC:L, and ED:K-12 credentials. Sandra earned her PhD in Interpretation and Translation Studies from Gallaudet University, where her dissertation examined ASL-English Interpreters’ Preparation Practices in Legal Settings, a Masters in ASL-English Interpreting Pedagogy, a Bachelors in Criminal Justice, and three Associate degrees in interpreter training, forensics and crime scene technology, and criminal justice, which inform her work in legal settings. Sandra currently serves as vice chair of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf Legal Interpreters Member Section (LIMS), having previously served as chair and Region II representative.

Cheryl was previously the staff sign language interpreter for the Arkansas state courts and is now a freelance interpreter in Mississippi. She has been a facilitator with both Project CLIMB and as a mentor with SIGN (Southeastern Interpreters Guidance Network). Cheryl began her interpreting career in Edmonton Alberta, Canada prior to moving to Arkansas in 1999. A Deaf-parented interpreter, and raised in a large Deaf family, Cheryl lives in Louisville, Mississippi with her husband and has 4 children and 7 grandchildren. For fun, she enjoys riding her motorcycle, volunteering with veteran’s programs, gardening, and spending time with her family.