Leah Ruiz is excited to be part the Pathways Specialist who works with students in the Education, Social, and Behavioral Health Pathway. She works toward inspiring and encouraging college students throughout their academic career. Being a first-generation student herself, it is her goal to help students realize that their life story has given them strengths they may not know they already possess, have the potential to overcome obstacles and successfully reach their goals and dreams. During her years as a graduate student in Criminal Justice and Criminology from Washington State University, she completed several publications and worked with WSU Coalition for Women Students, which works to create awareness of injustices for people of all genders and foster a safe and inclusive environment for all students. In her spare time, she likes to read books on personal growth and the juvenile justice system. She also enjoys hiking, playing volleyball, and tennis.

David Fischer grew up in Spokane, WA, and is a first-generation college graduate with an AAS – Architecture from Spokane Community College. While in college, he was a member of the VICA Club and won several awards at the state and national levels. David has been an employee of SFCC for more than 10 years, working with the Interpreter Training Program (ITP) students in the lab. David likes the campus because it is beautiful with lots of wildlife roaming the campus (Bald Eagles, Geese, Deer, and Moose) periodically.

David has traveled internationally visiting relatives in Germany and castles. David also lived for a time in Northridge, CA attending CSUN (California State University – Northridge). Today, David spends time with his two dogs and friends, hiking in the mountains and fly fishing. When at home, he is busy with various creative activities and cultivating his famous Day Lily flowers.

He enjoys finding innovative solutions, sharing his knowledge of Deaf Life, and helping students succeed. Working with the faculty of the ITP, he is responsible for the beautiful up to date ITP Lab area, the equipment, and some tutoring. His goal when assisting students is to encourage success with their assignments and keeping their motivation for sign language and the field of interpreting moving forward. David wants to remind everyone about a common misunderstanding that hearing people have about Deaf is … “that the ability to hear, has no relation to intelligence”.

Go Sasquatch!!

lodie Goodman has been a part of the SFCC community since September 2000. lodie was a French and film instructor and was the Chair of the Communication Arts & Modern Languages Department. After 18 years of teaching and advising students across the campus, she stepped up to the new role as Dean of Social Science, Business, and Human Services. She enjoys the opportunity to collaboratively work with faculty, staff, and students to advance the mission of SFCC. A couple of her passions are mentoring and being actively involved in Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging as well as championing professional development for her faculty and staff. Whatever is needed to better serve our students and community, particularly behind the scenes, lodie is game.

In her free time, lodie enjoys spending time with her family including her 4 German Shepherds, teaching and practicing yoga, writing, working in her organic lavender field, and collecting rocks.

Chad Henry is a tenure-track Interpreter Training Program instructor at Spokane Falls Community College.  He is a professional educator for students in high school and higher education, a skilled mentor in ASL and interpreting for beginning and established peers, and a qualified interpreter primarily working in a video relay service setting. He holds an Associate of Arts in Deaf Studies (2002), a Bachelor of Science in Sign Language Interpreting (2005), and a Master of Education in Interpreter Education (2015) from Tennessee Temple University in Chattanooga, Tennessee. 

Mea Mendez graduated from the Interpreter Training Program (ITP) at Spokane Falls Community College (SFCC) after gaining both an Associate and Bachelor’s degree from ITT Technical Institute. Mea has been active in the Deaf community events of Spokane and North Idaho. For several years, she has been invited and traveled to Deaf Poker tournaments in Portland, OR and Las Vegas, NV.

She joined the ITP faculty, as a substitute instructor, in 2017 and learned about the role of being an instructor. Mea enjoyed teaching and the knowledge gained brought her back to work for the ITP, as a Grant Tech for the GEERs Grant awarded to the ITP in 2021. During the grant, she managed a multitude of projects that benefited the faculty and students of the Interpreter Training Program. With her insight of student needs, along with understanding the faculty side, Mea was able to research, coordinate and complete multiple projects in a timely manner.

Today, Mea continues to work for the ITP, handling numerous curriculum projects that will advance the program. She is a valuable resource with her “can-do” attitude and willingness to organize, keeping the ITP functioning at top speed. What Mea likes best about SFCC is the knowledge and connections the college/program has and continues to give her. When Mea isn’t at SFCC, she is an assistant manager at her other job and stays busy with her work and home families, including her three fur kids. She is also active with a bowling and softball league which she plays each season.

Corrine Morrow is the Program Lead for the Interpreter Training Program (ITP) at Spokane Falls Community College (SFCC). She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Central Washington University and a Certificate – Interpreter Training from SFCC. Her professional certificates are NAD/RID CI/CT, as well as meeting the current EIPA assessments required for the state of Washington. Corrine has received the Exceptional SFCC Faculty Award and the NISOD Excellence Award for teaching and contributions to SFCC.

Corrine’s family is her everything. Travel with the family, is part of the Morrow’s lifestyle and often includes excursions that put the families’ feet where “history” happened. As a self-proclaimed history “nerd”, Corrine loves learning new things. She and her family have visited China, Thailand, and Laos as great adventures, as well as many places in the United States and numerous hockey rinks in western Canada. Another passionate interest of Corrine’s is the language of ASL and Deaf Culture because she loves the people of the culture and their language.

Corrine enjoys working with the amazing people of Interpreter Training Program because they share the same passion about meeting the needs and goals of the program offerings, by using their specific talents and working together on projects. The ITP is involved with the local interpreting and Deaf communities, as well as regional and state activities and organizations. Being involved with various levels keeps the Interpreter Training Program curriculum up to date and in alignment with current state needs and the ever-evolving interpreting profession.

As an instructor since 2001, she loves watching students catch “the fire”, moving through the stages of interest to passion to skilled and ultimately becoming colleagues in the interpreting community. Seeing the progression makes Corrine’s job worthwhile because it is awesome and inspiring to watch. Each quarter, meeting the students where they are and moving them forward to the next level by using resources that assist their learning, is a program goal of Corrine’s. Each year, as students complete the program, they are ready to work in the educational interpreting field. Their readiness benefits Deaf students in school districts across the United States, providing Deaf students access to information and public education.

Barabara Peregoy: Barb recently retired from a full-time teaching position at Eastern Washington University. She continues to teach as an adjunct instructor for Spokane Falls Interpreter Training Program (ITP) each winter quarter. This feeds her enthusiasm and love for audiology. When she is not teaching, her husband of 30+ years and her have an active retirement life. They love the outdoors year around and can be found hiking, biking, skiing, and the ever-present yard work. With no grandchildren in the picture, she decided to fill the nurturing void by adopting a puppy. Their goldendoodle puppy brings them much joy. He has so much energy and makes her laugh every day. This past October the three of them completed their first month long road trip in their 20-foot travel trailer. They have a spring trip planned and camping at near-by lakes this summer.

Her professional career in Audiology started shortly after graduate school. She accepted a position as Clinical Audiologist in a private practice ENT group in the Spokane Valley. During her 20 years with the physicians, she practiced just about everything within the scope of Audiology from dispensing hearing aids to developing the Universal Newborn Hearing Screening program at Deaconess Hospital. After many years practicing clinical audiology, she was recruited to teach a class in the graduate Audiology program at Washington State University. It was when she was offered a full-time teaching position with Eastern Washington University (her alma mater) that she decided to leave the private practice. During her teaching career at Eastern, she developed and taught several courses for the Communication Science and Disorders undergraduate program. Her role as an instructor for Eastern included clinical education of graduate students for the University Hearing and Speech Clinic.

During her audiology career she experienced the profound impact simultaneous communication makes in the life of a young deaf or hard of hearing child. During her time on the Board of Nexus Interpreter Services she met many incredibly talented sign language interpreters. In 2018 she started teaching ITP 104 Audiological Rehabilitation. Teaching this class allows her to share with students the identification and management of hearing loss, to better prepare them for the work they will be doing with the deaf and hard of hearing.

Melissa Pilant earned her AAS degree from Gallaudet University and bachelor’s degree from Eastern Washington University. Melissa was born in South Korea and learned some Korean sign while at the Deaf orphanage. When she was adopted by a hearing family, they had to learn sign language before she arrived in the United States. After the adoption, Melissa learned American sign language and is a first-generation college graduate. While at Gallaudet, Melissa learned about ASL and Deaf culture in a deeper way, gaining a new awareness for both and is proud to be a Deaf woman.

When Melissa returned to Spokane, she worked at the Eastern Washington Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, in the Hearing-Impaired Infant Program. She would meet families and their young children, with recent hearing loss diagnoses, to provide them with information about accessibility and services. She also worked at the Civic Theatre for their Deaf Camp ASL Performance. When Melissa isn’t teaching, she enjoys several hobbies: making paper origami items with her great nephew, nature photography and crocheting/knitting. She is always busy with her extended family and their animals (dogs, cats and chickens).

Melissa has worked at SFCC, in the Interpreter Training Program (ITP), since 2008. She teaches ASL&121, 122 and 123 classes, as well as ITP 241 (Deaf Culture). Melissa keeps up with new developments in ASL and the profession of interpreting, by attending numerous workshops, throughout the year. The interpreting profession is an integral part of a Deaf person’s world and Melissa enjoys being part of a team training students to become interpreters for the Deaf. She has been an advisor for 12 years to the SFCC’s Flying Hands club, working with students to plan and provide club activities. Melissa appreciates that the ITP has both Deaf and hearing instructors because that demonstrates respect of both the Deaf and hearing worlds and promotes a barrier free workplace.

She brings a unique perspective to the ITP by reminding us that a Deaf person’s greatest strength is visualization and that Deaf individuals shouldn’t have limitations set for them “saying what they can or can’t do”. Deaf people are human and should be treated respectively. She is encouraged that so many people are learning about ASL and Deaf Culture, so that they can communicate with each other and have fun without language barriers.

Judith (Judi) Throop moved to Spokane to be a student in the Interpreter Training Program (ITP) at Spokane Falls Community College (SFCC). With two BA degrees from Central Washington University, her goal at the time, was to learn ASL and become an Interpreter for the Deaf, so that she could work in a rural setting with D/d/HH/CI children in the K-12 setting. Upon completion of the Interpreter Training certificate, Judi substituted for interpreters at local school districts and then began interpreting at Washington State University (WSU). She relocated and spent 8 years interpreting at University of Idaho and WSU. While at WSU, Judi completed her Masters in Teaching and with a goal to teach K – 8 until she was offered an adjunct teaching position at SFCC ITP. The best of both worlds, continuing to interpret and teaching students about the profession was the norm for a few years. Eventually, a tenured position became available, and Judi was promoted.

For Judi, over 2 decades of teamwork, along with the longevity and consistency of the program have been the best part of working as tenured faculty. She feels that being part of the ITP, as it grows with the profession of interpreting and current technology needs, has been at times challenging, interesting, and ever evolving. The SFCC ITP enjoys partnering with Spokane and North Idaho Deaf groups for Deaf events. For other events, it is nice to see Spokane and the surrounding communities/events become more aware of the need to provide interpreters for Deaf individuals. It is nice to see that the old adages of “reading lips will be enough” or that “deaf are less capable” being dismantled throughout the region and United States.

Being at SFCC and as a member of the Interpreter Training Program, Judi is most proud of the positive attitude and the collegiality between co-workers and programs across the campus. The college is large enough to provide a quality education and small enough to make friends.

Judi believes the most inspiring aspects of the ITP, would be seeing student’s success while they are in the program and hearing of their accomplishments after they enter the workforce. A student’s energy and increased knowledge base, as they grow and learn to understand their role in a D/d/HH/CI child’s education, is exciting to watch. Students learn to love the language of ASL and then continue to study the practice of Interpreting. Judi likes when students discover the many facets of an interpreter’s job and can constructively use course information.

While interpreting may look easy, the profession requires effort, hard work and attention to detail. She knows that at SFCC, we build a strong foundation to support the students needs as they progress through the program.

Outside of the ITP and interpreting, Judi is busy with family, animals (including bees), gardening and lots of sewing/craft projects. She is always happy to be outdoors working around her property with her dog nearby.