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For more than 25 years, Kat Dunams served as a professional interpreter, facilitating communication between Deaf, hearing, and multilingual individuals across educational, medical, legal, workplace, community, and corporate environments.

In addition to her interpreting practice, she spent the last 10 years teaching and mentoring interpreters, helping emerging professionals develop the technical, interpersonal, and decision-making skills required to work effectively in complex communication environments.

While interpreting requires the technical skill of working between languages and cultures, some of the most valuable lessons she has learned throughout my career have come from observing how people communicate, collaborate, solve problems, navigate differences, and build relationships.

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Interpreters are often invited into pivotal moments of people's lives and careers. Over the years, this unique perspective has provided her with a rare window into communication successes, accessibility barriers, workplace dynamics, leadership styles, service delivery models, and the many factors that influence whether individuals feel understood, included, and empowered to participate fully.

These experiences ultimately shaped her broader interest in workplace communication, accessibility, professional development, workplace wellness, and human-centered support systems.

Her approach combines practical communication expertise, accessibility-informed thinking, and a strong belief that sustainable outcomes are created when people feel respected, informed, connected, and supported in ways that recognize both individual strengths and organizational goals.

In addition to her interpreting and teaching experience, she holds a Master's degree in Disability Studies and has developed and facilitated trainings, workshops, mentorship programs, accessibility initiatives, and professional development experiences for organizations, professionals, and community members seeking practical, relationship-centered approaches to communication and inclusion.

Education

 

CUNY Graduate Center, Master of Arts, Disability Studies, 2013 

Hunter College, Bachelor of Arts in English (Creative Writing), 2006

Summa Cum Laude

LaGuardia Community College Interpreter Education Program, Certificate of Interpretation, 2001

Dennis Brady Award

 

Specialty Training

 

Legal Interpreting

Courtroom Interpreting 

Mental Health Interpreting

Interpreting for Deaf/Blind Individuals 

Languages

Fluent and interpret between English, American Sign Language, Russian and Ukrainian

Intermediate knowledge of Spanish and German, Russian Sign Language (RSL)

Select Projects

Museum of Natural History (Margaret Mead Film Festival)

Viktor (Documentary: Oliver Sarbil, Director)

LifeLabs Learning

City University of New York

Curriculum vitae

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