ARID 2009-2011 Board Member Bios
Pat Nickell, IC/TC
President
president@arkansasrid.org
The daughter of deaf parents, Pat began professional interpreting in 1973, and earned her RID CSC in 1977. She is very active in the Arkansas Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf as the chapter President. She is married with three children and three grandchildren. Pat is an independent contract interpreter in Northwest Arkansas.
Elaine "Laney" Yates
vicepres@arkansasrid.org
Laney formerly served as Secretary, 2007-2009. Since 2008, she is the court interpreter for the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC). Since 2006, she is a part-time video relay interpreter and adjunct faculty at the UALR IEP since 2007. She graduated the UALR-IEP in 1997 and earned a MS degree from the UA-F in 1999 in Rehabilitation Counseling for Persons who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing. She worked in the outpatient mental health system in ME and AZ doing therapy, counseling, case management, mentorship and substance abuse counseling for D/deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing consumers. She was involved in programs for D/deaf trauma survivors and emergency first responders for D/deaf victims/survivors and their families. She also spent time lobbying the legislature for services for traditionally underserved populations and testifying before judiciary committees. She provided supervision for the State of Maine Office of Substance Abuse Services for “Deaf PAH,” the state’s only Deaf recovery support group; served as a rehabilitation counselor for the D/deaf and Hard of Hearing in OR and was responsible for setting up the first Deaf Job Club in her office and a College and Career Club at a local high school. Elaine has been signing for about 20 years getting her start as a church interpreter. She’s been working as a professional interpreter for about 15 years, and prior to that, she worked for 9 years in the legal field as a paralegal before to returning to college to become a professional interpreter.
Jami Hollingsworth, M.Ed., CI, CT
Secretary
secretary@arkansasrid.org
Jami earned her Master's degree in Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling—Specializing in Deafness in 1989 from the University of Arkansas, a Bachelor's degree in Sociology: Social Work in 1988), and an Associate's degree in Interpretation: ASL/English in 1987 from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Ms. Hollingsworth has been an instructor at UALR since 1992 and serves as the RSA Region VI Interpreter Education Project ASL Communication Specialist. She teaches ASL I, ASL II, Manually Coded English in Educational Settings, Fingerspelling, Artistic Interpreting in Educational Settings, and Interpreting Contextually Bound English Lexicon.
Ms. Hollingsworth is a member of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc. and Conference of Interpreter Trainers. Jami has served as Vice-President and President of the Arkansas Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf. Currently, she is serving as the Treasurer of this organization. She is very involved in the Deafblind community and continues to serve on the board of the Arkansas Deaf-Blind Community.
Elise Kirkpatrick
Treasurer
treasurer@arkansasrid.org
Elise has been a member of ARID since she began doing community interpreting in 2001. She now holds a state QAST Level 4 and is a candidate for the NIC performance test. Her interest in sign language began as a teenager when she became friends with a Deaf member of her church youth group. Although there have been many detours along her road to interpreting, she now works full time for Sign Language Specialists as a community and video relay (VR) interpreter.
Akeya Peoples
Member-at-Large
memberatlarge1@arkansasrid.org
I am the newly elected Member-at-Large serving for the 2009-2011 term. This is my first
time serving on a Board and I’m extremely excited and eager to face the challenges ahead. In May 2008, I earned my A.A. in the Interpretation and I’m currently pursuing the B.A. degree at UALR. I am a people person, always ready to learn as much as I can, but also willing and able to help others along in the process. I believe that we must all work together in order for this organization to be a success for the interpreters, as well as the Deaf Community. I look forward to working with all of you!
Nikki Wentz-Cherry
Member-at-Large
memberatlarge2@arkansasrid.org
Nikki is a Senior Interpreting major at UALR, graduating in December 2009. She is employed with
the Pulaski County Special School District as an educational interpreter. This year was her second RID Conference to serve as a Support Staff Member. She is a member of ARID, RID, ADBC, and involved with the Deafblind community. She is anxious to begin working more between the ARID Board and the membership.
NeCol Wilson
Member-at-Large
memberatlarge3@arkansasrid.org
NeCol Wilson started interpreting at church. She currently has achieved a Level 1 of the Arkansas Quality Assurance Screen Test (QAST) for Sign Language Interpreters. She is a member of the Arkansas Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc. and continues to take advantage of any opportunities to improve her skills. NeCol does part-time interpreting in Northwest Arkansas and is active in the Deal community.
NeCol Wilson has a Bachelor of Science (BA) from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) in Child and Family Development, a Master of Science from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in Human Development and Family Studies. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Public Policy with an emphasis in Disability Policy. NeCol is employed at the University of Arkansas College of Education and Health Professions. She is a training advisor and writer for the statewide Early Childhood Professional Development training program awarded through the Division of Child Care and Early Childhood Education. She has worked as a mental health paraprofessional, instructor and a foster/adopt pride trainer/assessor.
NeCol has one 13 year old daughter "Deidre" at home and she serves as her FREE full-time taxi driver! :0)