Meet Our Speakers

Dr Christopher Stone is President of the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI), providing strategic leadership for the organisation and representing sign language interpreters in global forums concerned with professional standards, and accessible communication for deaf communities. In this role, he works with international partners and regional representatives to support the development of the interpreting profession, interpreter education, and research informed practice.

He is a Reader in Interpreting and Translation at the University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom, where he is the interim Director of the Institute for Community Research and Development (the ICRD). Dr Stone currently supervises seven doctoral candidates based in the United Kingdom, and Belgium, reflecting his sustained commitment to advancing international scholarship in sign language interpreting and translation studies.

Dr Stone is Principal Investigator for the Deaf Mediator, Interpreter and Translator (DMIT) project (2025–2028), in collaboration with Jean Jaurès University, Toulouse, and Humboldt University, Berlin, examining deaf mediation, interpreting and translation across European contexts. He is Co-Investigator on the SmartSafeSigning project with colleagues at the Universities of Wolverhampton and Lancaster, investigating how technologies can support barrier-free access to services for deaf people experiencing domestic violence and abuse; and an international collaborator on the DEPICT project in Norway (2022–2026). Alongside these roles, he maintains an active professional interpreting practice with a particular focus on media and conference interpreting

Debra Russell, PhD, is a Canadian certified interpreter, educator and researcher. As the previous David Peikoff Chair of Deaf Studies, at the University of Alberta, her research interests include mediated education with interpreters, interpreting in legal settings and with legal discourse, and Deaf-hearing interpreter teams. She is well published and has presented in 65 countries. Her interpreting practice spans over forty years, and continues to focus on medical, legal, mental health and conference settings. She is the Honorary President of the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI) and served as a Commissioner for the Commission on Collegiate Interpreter Education (CCIE) from 2016-2022. She is currently the International Standards Organizations Technical Committee 37 Canadian Mirror Chair.