Mentors meet with interpreters who reside in Greater Minnesota through virtual mentoring sessions.
Our mentors demonstrate qualifications in ASL linguistics, ASL-to-English interpreting, English-to-ASL interpreting, cultural mediation, and more. Mentors are there to support the interpreters’ goals, with a focus on increasing interpreters’ confidence and skills when accepting community assignments.
Mentoring Specialty Areas: English-to-ASL and ASL Language Model
General, Post-Secondary, Medical Settings
Bethany Gehman, M.Ed., an AASECT certified sexuality educator, has more than seven years of experience in providing sexuality education and professional training. She studied Studio Art, Psychology, and Family & Child Studies at Gallaudet University for her bachelor’s degree. During her teaching years as an art and child development teacher at Texas School for the Deaf, Bethany studied Human Sexuality Education for her master’s degree.
Mentoring Specialty Areas: English-to-ASL and ASL Language Model
General Settings
Bree Logan is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in International Area and Studies. Bree has served on Oklahoma Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (OKRID) as Member at Large and Vice President. Also, she is a former Miss Deaf Oklahoma, Miss Deaf Oklahoma Director, and continues utilizing these platforms to provide workshops, trainings, and advocate for the Deaf community through a variety of avenues.
Mentoring Specialty Areas: English-to-ASL and ASL Language Model
General Settings
Chantal Bergeron is a Canadian native. At age two, she was discovered that she has profound hearing loss. After few years at oral school, she was transferred to deaf school and started learning ASL. She graduated from Gallaudet University with a Bachelor’s in Family and Child Studies.
Mentoring Specialty Areas: English-to-ASL
Janine Cashman has had a variety of experiences in her 40 year career thus far. What initially sparked her interest was ASL linguistics, which prompted her to become an ASL instructor at Indiana University. During her time there, she worked closely with the well known author of the paper, “The Unlocking of the Curriculum” – 1989, Dr. Scott Lidell. As a team, they developed 76 intermediate and advanced ASL videotapes that were distributed nationally.
Mentoring Specialty Areas: English-to-ASL
I’m Jenny Smith-Hastings, I was born and raised in southern Minnesota and still live here! I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Interpretation from Gallaudet University. I am currently employed at St. Catherine University as a program specialist for the CATIE Center. My areas of specialty and focus as a mentor are in English to ASL interpreting, sign choices, register, deception, and some ASL model.
Mentoring Specialty Areas: ASL Language Model
Michele Rolewitz was born in Moorhead, MN and raised in Fargo, ND. She attended the North Dakota School for the Deaf in Devils Lake, ND and National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester in Rochester, NY. Michele had Deaf grandparents, therefore learned sign language at a young age. Both her mom and dad are fluent in ASL.
Mentoring Specialty Areas: English-to-ASL and ASL Language Model
General, Medical, Legal, Post-Secondary, Business, and Atypical Settings
Naomi Sheneman, Ph.D. & CDI has been working professionally in the interpreting profession since 2000 in various roles. She is currently a freelance consultant, researcher, educator, interpreter diagnostician, mentor, and interpreter. She is the first deaf woman to receive a Ph.D. degree in Interpretation from Gallaudet University
Mentoring Specialty Areas: English-to-ASL and ASL Language Model
General Settings
Nic Zapko is currently working as a Deaf Interpreter and Deaf Mentor. Starting in 2006 she began her work as Co-Facilitator and Co-Director of Storyblend with Patty Gordon. This lead Nic into the profession of the mentoring and interpreting world. Storyblend is an immersion program focusing on developing Hearing interpreters and Deaf mentors by enhancing their knowledge and building a bridge between the two worlds.
Mentoring Specialty Areas: English-to-ASL and ASL Language Model
General Settings, Post-Secondary, Mental Health, Atypical Language
Paula is a recently returned Minnesotan native, she has lived in Charlotte, DC, San Diego, Seattle, Austin, and now Minneapolis. While she is new to mentoring interpreters, she is not new to connecting with people in many different ways. She graduated from Gallaudet with a degree in Mental Health Counseling, and her career has involved counseling, advocacy, trauma-informed advocacy and supervision, and interpreting. She currently works as a manager in the Disability Resource Center at University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Mentoring Specialty Areas: ASL Language Model
General, Medical, Government, Education, Mental Health, Performance Settings
Sunny Brysch is a Deaf Asian woman and the second generation of a Deaf family. She is proud of the Deaf generational family and the ASL she was raised with. Sunny has a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Wisconsin-Superior. She also has a Master’s in Social Work from Augsburg College. Unfortunately, a career in that field has limited opportunities due to communication barriers. She returned to school for ASL Studies to earn the required credentials to pursue a career as an ASL teacher.
Mentoring Specialty Areas: ASL Language Model
Education, Technology, Mental Health Settings
Tracy Laneis Ivy went to the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). She’s deaf. She obtained her AAS, BA, and MS from NTID/RIT. She holds a Minnesota Licensure as an American Sign Language Instructor.
Mentoring Specialty Areas: English-to-ASL and ASL Language Model
General, Medical, Legal, Mental Health, Religious Settings
Vyron Kinson lives in Atlanta, GA. Currently, he works full-time with the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) as a Communication Specialist. He also has various part-time positions: Atlanta Area School for the Deaf as an ASL Teacher, Georgia Parent Infant Network Educational Service as a Deaf Mentor, CATIE Center: Graduation to Certification Project as a Co-Facilitator and ASL Mentor; ASL Diagnostic Service LLC as owner and Deaf Interpreter and he is also a freelance Disc Jockey.
Mentoring Specialty Areas: ASL-to-English and DC-S
General, Medical, Post-Secondary, Business, Mental Health, Atypical Language, Engineer/Mechanics, Government Settings
Henry did his interpreter training at UW-Milwaukee before moving out to Washington D.C. to work on a master’s in linguistics from Gallaudet University. During his time at Gallaudet he worked as an interpreter and also an ESL instructor for international students both at Gallaudet and in the D.C. area. He has his NIC and recently completed his QMHI in Alabama to become a qualified mental health interpreter.
Mentoring Specialty Areas: ASL-to-English and DC-S
General, Medical, Post-Secondary, Business, Technology, Mental Health, and K-12 Settings
Jasmine Marin has a Master of Science degree in Health Care Interpreting from Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute of the Deaf. She received NIC Advanced national certification from The Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf in 2008 and was a contributing author in the textbook: Handbook of Research on Medical Interpreting. She also holds national CoreCHI certification from the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters. Jasmine is originally from Canada but currently lives in Arizona and has been a practicing signed language interpreter for over 15 years. She is licensed and registered to practice in Arizona and Nevada. As owner of a local interpreting agency, she has worked in a variety of community settings, but is primarily a healthcare interpreter.
Mentoring Specialty Areas: ASL-to-English
General, Post-Secondary, Business, Technology, and Religious Settings
Tanesh Foster began learning ASL at the age of 13 after being fascinated with seeing interpreters at her church. Her fascination grew into a passion and when she went off to college, she decided to make interpreting her career choice. Tanesh graduated from the ITP program at the University of South Florida and began her career.
Mentoring Specialty Areas: ASL-to-English
General, Legal, Business, and Conference Settings
Tarra works as an ASL/English interpreter and has for almost 15 years. She holds a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice, Graduate Certificate in Legal Interpreting, Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology of Deviance, and Associate’s Degree in ASL/English Interpreting. She also presents workshops around the country on the topic of suicide, as she is a sibling survivor of suicide.
Mentors are expected to:
To read the full program exceptions for mentors, visit our mentor application page.
Each interpreting participant will be required to complete a pre- and post-skills assessment. Based off of the results of the pre-assessment, the interpreter will be matched with a mentor who demonstrates the qualifications to support the interpreters’ goals.
Mentors and apprentices will meet virtually through an agreed upon platform. The most preferred platform is Zoom.
Mentors have an opportunity to meet and work with interpreters statewide through video conferencing technology. This allows them to meet interpreters/ colleagues they have never met before!
Depends on the schedule of the mentors and interpreters.
Mentors will share helpful tips, tools, and resources with one another. The E2E Program Coordinator will serve as the main liaison between the mentor and interpreter participants. Opportunities of mentor training may be provided upon request.
Mentors witness the growth and development of interpreters as they become more confident in their interpreting skills.
The Education-2-Excellence Program is provided by ASLIS and is supported by grant funding from the Minnesota Department of Human Services, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Division.