Terri Wakefield, CMT
AHDI-West Secretary & Delegate

I have been an MT since 1980, having gone to school to be a medical secretary. Interestingly, the instructor “discouraged” us from doing the boring job of medical transcription and always promoted being the medical “secretary.” Nevertheless, even with that bias instilled, I ended up being a medical transcription as it incorporated my love for language with my love for typing. I then grew to love medicine and the medical language. Voila! A match made in heaven…

I worked in hospitals and had my own service for many years. I was introduced to AAMT around the year 1982 and went to a workshop sponsored by the Greater Boston chapter that was being done by Claudia Tessier on style and practices. I had no idea at the time that I would eventually actually work for this woman, but was in awe of this person’s knowledge and passion.

I started to get involved in chapter activities and went to my first national AAMT meeting in the mid-1980s. Soon after I applied for a position at the AAMT national office where I was hired as Certification Coordinator and later became the Director of Certification. I was employed by AAMT from 1989 to 1995 after which I was on the national board of directors.

In 2001, my husband and I became domestic missionaries in a program for troubled teens and I left the profession for about 3 years. However, once our term was over as missionaries, I returned to my first love, medical transcription. I have had a varied background in the profession, working as an MT, QA, manager, business owner, volunteer, customer care and medical editor.

I love to cook (especially baking), making bead jewelry, and my husband and I recently relocated to the warmth of Arizona from New England. I have a rescued pug named Princess who keeps me company while my husband is away as a truckdriver. He used to want me to learn to drive a truck and so we could become a team; however, he changed his mind after I spent a 2-week vacation with him on the truck (thank goodness!).