About the Author
Genevieve “Gigi” Sefchick is a Healthcare and Court Certified Interpreter through the State of Nevada and CCHI. She recently retired from the Washoe County District Attorney’s Office, where she worked as a Victim Advocate since 2004. Gigi has been a member of the Alliance for Victims’ Rights since 2008, and chairperson from June 2016 to 2020.
Gigi has trained interpreters at Truckee Meadows Community College since 2005. She began by preparing aspiring interpreters pursuing State Certification. She then started creating her own materials and preparing workshops in terminology related to expert witness testimony, such as firearms and ballistics, fingerprints, DNA and serology, and other workshop on advanced simultaneous interpretation and note-taking, to assist interpreters in obtaining Continuing Education Units (CEU’s) to maintain their state certification. She also taught a practical class in Medical Interpretation. She has also been an instructor at the University of Nevada Reno’s International Center and at the Northern Nevada Literacy Council. She is currently a member of NAJIT.
Gigi is currently teaching online courses through the Teachable platform. Given the lack of advanced classes with an emphasis in terminology, Gigi’s goal is to provide as many opportunities for interpreters to learn and practice in order to ensure equal access to justice.
Gigi moved to Reno, Nevada from Mexico City in 2002 with her husband Jose Luis Olivares and her 2 children, Jose and Regina. Gigi’s background is mostly in education. In Mexico, she worked as an elementary school teacher, as a translator, and for bilingual companies. For a while, her husband and she were partners in a “Business English” school in Mexico City.
