Ritchie Bryant Elected as RID President

Ritchie R. Bryant, ’93, is the new president of the Board of Directors of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf. He is the first Deaf, and the first Black Deaf, president of RID in the organization’s 57-year history. His two-year term began on September 1. 

Ritchie ran for RID president earlier this year, and finished second to the incumbent president in a three-way race. The incumbent president subsequently resigned, as did all other RID board members, triggering a special election to fill vacant positions. In this election, conducted in late August, Bryant had one opponent, and won by a significant margin. His campaign platform centered around three concepts: accountability, collaboration, and thriving, or ACT. 

Ritchie is a staff interpreter with Gallaudet Interpreting Service. A Certified Deaf Interpreter (CDI) since 2007, he also holds the Conditional Legal Interpreter Permit-Relay (CLIP-R) credential. According to the biography on his website, he has been presenting ASL/Deaf-related workshops for over 20 years. With his experiences as an ASL mentor and ASLPI/SLPI evaluator, he trained Deaf people to become ASL mentors for signers from the Community Interpreter Grant program.  He has provided consulting services ranging from deaf interpreting to development of evaluations for future deaf and hearing interpreters to various organizations and agencies. 

Ritchie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Sign Language from Gallaudet University and a Master of Science degree in deaf education from McDaniel College. He served on the RID Board as a Deaf Member at Large from 2015 to 2017.

Congratulations and best wishes!