Our team
Our story
For too long, efforts to improve healthcare communication across languages have happened in silos—separated by institution, profession, language, and discipline. Linguists, interpreters, clinicians, educators, researchers, and policy experts have all been working toward similar goals, but without a shared space to come together.
At the Center for Clinician Multilingualism, we believe it’s time to change that.
Our work began with a simple but powerful idea: language skills are not just personal traits—they are professional assets that can transform healthcare. As physicians who have cared for patients in a shared language and seen the impact firsthand, we know how much better care can be when patients and clinicians truly understand each other.
We also know the risks of getting it wrong. We’ve seen how well-intentioned efforts to “get by” speaking another language can lead to miscommunication that leaves patients confused—or even harmed. And we’ve experienced, as both clinicians and patients, how meaningful it is when someone takes the time to communicate clearly, fully, and compassionately.
That’s why we started CCM—to bridge the gaps, elevate clinician multilingualism, and bring together evidence-based tools, research, education, and policy to support better care across all languages. This is about person-centered care and reimagining what’s possible when we treat language as a bridge—not a barrier.
Together, we can build a healthcare system where language skills are recognized, supported, and celebrated—and where every patient has the chance to be heard and understood.
Pilar Ortega, MD, MGM
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder
Dr. Pilar Ortega’s passion for language-concordant healthcare began early, as a commitment to her family and community. Growing up in a Spanish-speaking home, Pilar learned English at school and often helped her family communicate with their doctors. As she pursued her medical training, what began as a personal commitment also became a high-demand professional skill set: Pilar quickly became a go-to resource for her peers, teaching them how to better connect with Spanish-speaking patients. That sense of purpose has guided her career ever since. Today, Pilar is a multilingual (Spanish/English) emergency medicine physician, educator, and executive leader working to transform how healthcare systems value and support clinician language skills.
As CEO and Co-Founder of the Center for Clinician Multilingualism, Pilar leads a national effort to elevate clinician multilingualism as a driver of person-centered care. She is also the Founder and CEO of the National Association of Medical Spanish, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing medical Spanish education, research, and mentorship. Pilar serves as Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago and as an executive committee member for the Medical Organization for Latino Advancement. She has designed, taught, and evaluated medical language courses for over 20 years and authored more than 55 peer-reviewed publications and 4 books, including the widely used Spanish and the Medical Interview series. Pilar holds degrees from the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, and the Universidad Internacional de Andalucía.
Lisa Diamond, MD, MPH
Chief Strategy Officer & Co-Founder
Dr. Lisa Diamond’s journey into language-concordant care began long before her research found national recognition. She is a bilingual (English/Spanish) second language learner and internal medicine physician. Lisa discovered early on that well-meant advice to “get by” speaking another language often fell short—and sometimes even led to miscommunication. During a medical rotation in Honduras, she witnessed a doctor accidentally tell a patient to wash a wound with “sopa y agua,”(sopa sounds similar to the English “soap” but means “soup”) a mix-up that underscored for her the high stakes of language errors. That moment stayed with her, reinforcing the idea that even small language mistakes can carry serious consequences — and fueling her lifelong commitment to making sure every patient is truly understood.
Today, as Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of the Center for Clinician Multilingualism, Lisa harnesses her personal passion and professional expertise to drive innovation in establishing standards for clinician language proficiency. She is recognized both nationally and internationally for her work in improving clinician communication. Her role as an Associate Attending Physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, her authorship of over 65 peer-reviewed publications, and her leadership as Co-Founder and Academic Medical Director of the National Association of Medical Spanish all speak to her dedication and impact. Lisa’s research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, the National Board of Medical Examiners Stemmler Fund, and The California Endowment. She holds degrees from Yale University School of Medicine, George Washington School of Medicine, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.