Jenny Ma, Principal Deputy Director,
Office for Civil Rights, United States Department of Health & Human Services

Jenny Ma serves as the Principal Deputy Director at the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. In her role, she oversees the implementation and enforcement of civil rights and privacy laws and related policy and strategic initiatives. Jenny also coordinates work with OCR’s 11 national offices and supports the Director in the management of day-to-day operations of the office and staff.
Before joining the Biden-Harris Administration, Jenny was a Senior Counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, where she led complex, high-stakes reproductive rights cases in state and federal courts, including as counsel in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization before the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to these roles, Jenny served as a law clerk to the Honorable John T. Noonan, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Honorable Robert W. Sweet of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She also worked at the law firms Jones Day and Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP, where she co-authored an amicus brief in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Jenny is a graduate of Columbia Law School, where she was a Harlan Fisk Stone Scholar, a Ms. JD Fellow, and received the Louis Henkin Outstanding Note Award for her scholarship. She also holds an M.A. from Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and a B.A. with honors from Wesleyan University. Jenny recently received the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s Women’s Leadership Award, which recognized professional excellence in legal field and demonstrated leadership and advancement of women or women’s issues.

Vonessa Costa, Chair of Certification Commission for
Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI)

Vonessa Costa is Sr. Director of Quality for the Health Care Interpreter Network, a collaborative of hospitals that share interpreter resources. Vonessa is former director of Multicultural Affairs and Patient Services at Cambridge Health Alliance, named number one in Massachusetts for Health Equity and Community Benefit by the Lown Institute (2021, 2023). She is former director of Cross Cultural Communication Institute at CCCS, Inc. Vonessa has co-authored articles published by AMA Journal of Ethics and The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. Vonessa is Chair of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters, serving as a Commissioner since 2020.

Kelly (Grzech) Henriquez, Medical Interpreter Trainer

Kelly (Grzech) Henriquez is a dual-certified Spanish medical/healthcare interpreter in Richmond, Virginia. She acquired her BA from Virginia Commonwealth University with a concentration in Spanish and completed their SETI (Spanish/English Translation and Interpretation) program. Kelly began her career in language services at a local safety net clinic and has since been interpreting on-site. During the pandemic, she began her YouTube channel for interpreters to provide free and accessible continuing education.  Shortly thereafter, she became a medical interpreter trainer with Americans Against Language Barriers (AALB) and was recognized as the 2023 AALB Interpreter Educator of the Year.