New Page 1

President and Owner

Richard Laurion, CI, CT, NIC Advanced

Richard has been in the Interpreting Profession since 1983. Much of his career has been working as an Interpreter Advocate and Coordinator for the State of Minnesota, then his own business and currently for the College of St. Catherine. While with the state, a large portion of his time was spent in Greater Minnesota learning about the unique complications faced by interpreters in rural or remote locations. As an Interpreter Coordinator, he distinguished himself by developing innovative and creative professional development programs for interpreters. Richard is a graduate of Concordia University of St. Paul and St. Paul Technical College. He has had many unique opportunities to serve the field of interpreting which include: 6 years on the Minnesota RID Board of Directors, 14 years as an advisory committee member to the interpreter education programs at: St. Paul Technical College, Itasca Community College and the RSA Region V Federal Interpreter Education Project. Richard has served 8 years on the Board of Directors for the National Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, where he served at Secretary/Treasurer and Vice President. He was appointed by the Governor of Minnesota to serve as a member of the Minnesota Commission Serving Deaf and Hard of Hearing People, and served one term as its Chairperson. In 1998, he established SLICES: Sign Language Interpretation, Consultation & Education Services, with Paula Gajewski for the purpose of designing and developing educational products and programs for sign language interpreters and their professional development. He is now the Project Manager for the Collaborative for the Advancement of Interpreting Excellence (CATIE) Center housed at the College of St. Catherine. He is also president and founder of Associates of St. Anthony Park and ASAPinterpreting.com.