Rita McDade is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and was the first native BSL user appointed as Training Officer for a professional registration interpreting body in the UK and Europe when she joined the staff at the Scottish Association of Sign Language Interpreter (SASLI) in 1994.  Rita also co-founded the interpreting training programmes at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh in 1996 which led to a new full time MA degree programme established in 2012. In her spare time, she acts as language/linguistic consultant,  BSL and interpreting trainer,  HEI external examiner, intercultural mediator,  translator,  mentor and websites/public service filming  presenter to name a few.