WASHINGTON - TelAve -- The National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC) is proud to announce the recipients of the 2026 Language Access Champion Awards, honoring individuals and organizations whose leadership, innovation, and commitment have significantly advanced equitable communication in health care across the nation.

Individual Award: Cindy Roat, MPH

Certified as a medical and social‑service English–Spanish interpreter, Ms. Roat began her career in the early 1990s providing language services across a wide range of community settings. Her early work naturally evolved into training interpreters, instructors, medical providers, and health‑care administrators, laying the foundation for a career defined by leadership in systems‑level language access. For more than three decades, Ms. Roat has been a tireless advocate for equitable communication in health care, and her commitment to learning from colleagues across borders has shaped a truly global impact. Through her long service on boards and organizations dedicated to language access, she has distinguished herself as an exemplary professional, someone whose passion is clear, sustained, and consistently translated into meaningful action.

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Organizational Award: Eastern Oregon Coordinated Care Organization (EOCCO)

EOCCO is an Oregon coordinated care organization serving Oregon Health Plan members across 12 rural and frontier counties in Eastern Oregon, coordinating physical, behavioral, and dental benefits while investing in community-based solutions to improve access to care. In a region where patients face limited access to qualified interpreting services, EOCCO has made sustained, equity-driven investments in a locally rooted healthcare interpreter workforce. EOCCO partnered with Oregon State University to fund the development of two Oregon Health Authority-approved interpreter training programs for rural and frontier communities along with scholarships for participants. These programs have achieved strong completion and credentialing rates, producing graduates in Spanish–English and less common language pairs. By preparing interpreters who live and work locally and advancing innovative provider reimbursement strategies, EOCCO is helping remove language barriers to care across its Medicaid service area.

Join us as we celebrate these extraordinary achievements at the 2026 NCIHC Language Access Congress Interpretini Reception taking place September 24–26, 2026, in Providence, Rhode Island.

Register now:
https://www.ncihc.org/index.php?option=com_mcform&view=ngforms&id=2272497#/