Cathy Bowers

Cathy Bowers, CI & CT, IC/TC

Cathy was born and raised outside of Baltimore, Maryland.  She began taking sign language classes during her freshman year at Anne Arundel Community College.  She became fascinated with the language and continued her sign classes at Lenoir Rhyne College in Hickory, North Carolina.  Cathy spent an internship at the Central North Carolina School for the Deaf in Greensboro and spent her senior year at the North Carolina School for the Deaf in Morganton.  After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Deaf Education, Cathy and her husband moved to Atlanta, Georgia where she taught at the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf for two years.

In 1980, Cathy moved to Clearwater, Florida where she and her family lived for the next 15 years.  She worked as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor for the Deaf for two and a half years.  She also began doing some community and educational interpreting.  She attended two summer intensive interpreter training programs sponsored by Flagler College held at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind.  In 1986, Cathy received her IC/TC from RID.   In addition to interpreting, Cathy worked as a professional tutor for Deaf students at Saint Petersburg College.

The winds of change blew strong in 1996.  That is when Cathy and her family moved 3000 miles across the country to the Sacramento area.  While in California, Cathy worked for nine and a half years as a staff interpreter at California State University, Sacramento.  She also enjoyed doing freelance interpreting and becoming involved with SaVRID.  In 1999, she received her Certificate of Transliteration from the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf.

Although the California friendships she made were priceless, Cathy missed her family that was still on the East Coast.  In November of 2005, Cathy and her husband moved 3000 miles back across the country and settled in Columbia, South Carolina.  Since the move, she has been trying to get involved with the local RID chapter and has been busy practicing her southern drawl.  Cathy is excited to be coordinating with Eaton Interpreting Services, Inc., because it means she can stay in contact with the California interpreters who touched her life so deeply.