Carla Mathers practiced law in Maryland and the District of Columbia for over twenty-five years. She currently is an independent consultant teaching legal interpreters, and a practicing legal interpreter. Ms. Mathers’ law degree is from Howard University School of Law and her interpreting degree is from the College of Southern Idaho. She serves on the District of Columbia Courts Language Access Advisory Council and on the American Bar Association’s Advisory Group for Language Access Standards for the Courts. Ms. Mathers was a member of the RID Task Force on Legal Credentialing and of the Maryland Administrative Office of the Courts' Advisory Committee on Interpreters, its Sub-committee on Ethics and its Sub-committee on Testing and Training. Ms. Mathers served as the Legal Program Coordinator for MARIE Center/DOIT Center at the University of Northern Colorado. She served as an adjunct instructor for the Gallaudet University Department of Interpretation teaching legal interpreting. She was Vice President for the Conference of Interpreter Trainers and was on the Board of Directors for the Deaf Abused Women’s Network in Washington, D.C. Ms. Mathers is the author of Sign Language Interpreters in Court: Understanding Best Practices, a text for interpreters, attorneys, and courts to understand the principles underlying ASL court interpreting.

Nigel Howard is an instructor at the University of Victoria in the Department of Linguistics. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Linguistics. At Douglas College, he had worked in the Program of Sign Language Interpretation (INTR), and Child, Family and Community Studies (CFCS) for 25 years. Nigel has been an interpreter for nearly 30 years in various settings such as medical, mental health, legal, theatre, community, and conference/workshops locally, nationally, and internationally. He is an Accredited International Sign Interpreter under the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) and World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI), and is also part of the United Nations team of International Sign interpreters and interprets media. Broadcasting and translating are his forte. Nigel advocates for Deaf communities locally in British Columbia, nationally across Canada and globally around the world in human rights, accessibility, signed languages, and Deaf culture. Such examples are being Vice President of the BC Deaf Community Foundation (DCF) and former executive board member of the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI). He provides consultations, educational workshops/training and presentations to various governments and organisations/associations to enhance better understanding, appreciation and awareness of Deaf culture and its signed language. It is a big part of his role as advocate, educator, and motivator. Such examples are “Global Diversity in Deaf Culture”, and “Enculturation and Acculturation: Deaf and Hearing Worlds/Spaces”. Nigel was also part of the Editorial board for the International Journal of Interpreter Editor (for over 10 years).