Jump to main content

RIPPLE: Facilitator / Mentor Training Program

Content of this page (to Program Cohorts) is presented by Shana Gibbs in American Sign Language.

Adapted from the UNC-Project CLIMB mentor training, the IRIS Rural Interpreters Promoting Professional Learning and Engagement (RIPPLE) program is designed as a 5-month, 120 hour hybrid (online and in-person) community of learning that focuses on reflecting on one's own journey of learning and how to apply those experiences when facilitating and mentoring others. The program utilizes current interpreting models and frameworks paired with social justice as the lens of the discussion.  

Ripple participants during onsite summer 2023

Throughout RIPPLE, participants will experience the following:

  1. Real-world experiences facilitating synchronous collegial discussions;
  2. Real-world experiences mentoring a fellow colleague;
  3. Applying interpreting frameworks to the task of facilitating and mentoring; and
  4. Analysis of dialogic learning environments.

Upon completion of this program, participants will be able to: 

  1. Demonstrate the competencies required to facilitate IRIS Project participants through an online curriculum; 
  2. Demonstrate the competencies required to mentor IRIS Project participants; 
  3. Recognize systematic barriers inherent in interpreting work;  
  4. Reflect upon factors impacting decision-making while facilitating and mentoring; and
  5. Extrapolate a participant’s interpreting work apart from the person via an Integrated Model of Interpreting framework.

Program Cohorts

The IRIS Project recognizes the hard work and dedication of the participants who have successfully completed* the RIPPLE program. To search for qualified interpreters, visit the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) website. 

*Successful completion does not provide endorsement of the participant's language fluency or skills as an interpreter / mentor or facilitator. 

Cohort One (Winter 2022)

by first name; NOTE: 1st column is first names starting with A-D, 2nd column is J-K, 3rd column is L-M, and 4th column is S-T.

  • Alicia McClurkan 
  • Caitlin Quiroz
  • Dan DeLuca
  • Donna Walker 
  • Jackie Bruce 
  • Jeremy Quiroga 
  • Kenton Myers
  • LaShawnda Lowe
  • Lianne Moccia
  • Margaret Haberman 
  • Mary Essex  
  • Michelle Rheault-Bissonette
  • Summer Chappell
  • Trenton Marsh