Harriet Brenner-Gettleman, CMRS, CRI
Agent, Instructor, President and Director of The Realtime Center For Learning
Beginning with her first freelance court reporting assignment in the mid-1960s, Harriet Brenner-Gettleman, CMRS, CRI, has been on the forefront of innovation in the court reporting field. Harriet has held a variety of positions, from court reporting in court and in the freelance field to owning an agency and a court reporting school, to serving as vice president of one of the largest court reporting companies in the country. There she was in charge of training, management and quality control of seventy-five reporters, writing the company’s format book, instituting an intern program, and a level system of reporters based on their expertise, changing the industry’s way of scheduling work for court reporters.
Harriet is a lifelong learner and a born educator. Her teaching experience includes several schools such as the Verbatim Court Reporting School and the Academic Business Institute, private court reporting tutoring, and realtime court reporting teacher for BOCES of Nassau County, New York. She has taught speed classes in which students received dictation at speeds ranging from 60 to 225 words per minute; created and taught deposition-court procedures and four-voice classes; and trained inexperienced reporters after completing their formal training. During her extensive career, Harriet also developed and coordinated an intern program for a multi-million-dollar court reporting business.
Seeing an urgent need for further changes in the court reporting industry, Harriet made a decision to open a new kind of court reporting agency, one that addressed the need for highly technical computer-aided court reporting skills. Realtime Reporting, Inc. was incorporated in May of 1997 and opened for business in January of 1998. She incorporated the intern program and level system to create a highly-skilled workforce of reporters.
As president of Realtime Reporting, Inc., Harriet cultivated many trusting, long-standing relationships in the legal community, including attorneys, law firms, administrators, support staff, and other professionals. Harriet embarked on a mission to provide the legal field with the most professional, courteous and experienced court reporters available in the industry, and to provide court reporters with an everlasting opportunity for professional and personal growth through state-of-the-art technology and a supportive staff to meet the reporters’ needs. Realtime Reporting, Inc. received the Long Island Business News award as the Best Court Reporting Firm for the years 2007 and 2008. As of October 2008, Harriet retired from Realtime Reporting, Inc. to pursue her ongoing dedication to the training of new court reporters by focusing on Realtime Center For Learning, Inc.
Harriet is an Agent, Instructor, Director and the President of The Realtime Center For Learning. She received her Certified Manager of Reporting Services from the NCRA on August 3, 2001 and her Certified Reporting Instructor on June 30, 2003.
Christine DeRosa, BS, Freelance Court Reporter, Agent, Instructor and Chief Operating Officer of The Realtime Center For Learning
Christine DeRosa first started her career in the court reporting industry in 2006 working in the production department for Realtime Reporting, Inc. while attending Farmingdale State University for her bachelor’s degree in business administration, management, and operations. She graduated from Farmingdale State in 2009, Magna Cum Laude, and as a member of Sigma Beta Delta, the International Honor Society of Business Administration, Management and Operations. During her time with Realtime Reporting, she quickly worked her way up the chain of command to hold the position of office administrator where she acquired a complete understanding of all facets of the court reporting industry.
As office administrator of Realtime Reporting, Inc., Christine oversaw the operations for transcript production including performing quality control, formatting, proofreading, and litigation support, coordinated workflow to ensure timely delivery to clients, billing, bookkeeping, production, and demographic reports, maintained relationships with attorneys, paralegals and secretaries, trained and supervised office staff, and coordinated and participated in legal trade shows. Realtime Reporting, Inc. received the Long Island Business News award as the Best Court Reporting Firm for those years, 2007 and 2008.
In 2009, when Realtime Reporting’s president, Harriet Brenner-Gettleman, retired to focus on Realtime Center For Learning, Christine joined forces with Ms. Brenner-Gettleman. To understand the program in-depth, Christine enrolled as a student where she began to realize that not only was she helping to advance this unique, innovative new realtime school, she had also found her niche and another passion, a career in court reporting.
Christine graduated Realtime Center for Learning where she received her certificate in court reporting in 2012. From 2012 to the present, Christine has excelled as a highly trained freelance court reporter taking depositions in a wide array of cases including medical malpractice, expert witness testimony and high-profile cases with under a .02 percent untranslate rate.
During this time, Christine has also continued to play a contributing role with Realtime Center For Learning, administratively and academically, where she is directly involved with teaching the students and sharing her extensive training and experience in all areas of the court reporting industry, providing software training and technical support, and has mentored many post-graduate students entering the court reporting field.
Christine joins Realtime Center For Learning as its Chief Operating Officer in 2022. With the onset of the COVID pandemic, educational learning has moved to a different platform of education, reaching the student through either Zoom or telephonic instruction. Christine will be spearheading this learning style in the revitalization of this highly acclaimed court reporting program.
Joan Donnelly, Instructor
Joan Donnelly has been actively employed for over 30 years in the court reporting field since graduating from Adelphi Business School in 1978. She has been a member of the National Court Reporters Association since 1979 and is a Registered Professional Reporter (RPR), as well as a Certified Realtime Reporter (CRR) and a Certified Reporting Instructor (CRI).
After freelancing for several years at the beginning of her career, she successfully passed the New York State Supreme Court test and was appointed as an Official Court Reporter in June of 1982. She was assigned to Queens Supreme Court, handling both criminal and civil matters, until 1990 when she then transferred to New York County Supreme Court at 60 Centre Street. In her capacity as an Official Court Reporter there, she gained extensive experience reporting a wide array of litigation, particularly medical malpractice and commercial litigation. The majority of trials reported by Joan were delivered to the parties on an immediate basis and reported in realtime. While employed in New York County, Joan was elected to and served as a member of the Executive Committee and was instrumental in resolving employer-employee related issues.
After serving over 20 years in the Supreme Court, Joan moved on to the teaching aspect of court reporting in 2004. She has been a court reporting instructor at New York Career Institute in Manhattan for five years. She has taught theory and speed classes in which students received dictation up through 160 words per minute.
Joan has always taken an active interest in her students and believes one cannot educate the mind without first opening the heart.
Joan joined the staff at Realtime Center For Learning in 2009 and has become a highly effective contributor to the administration as well as a skilled high speed teaching instructor.
Mindy Perlish, CSR, Instructor and Life Coach
Mindy Perlish has maintained her Certified Shorthand Reporter (CSR) license for almost 50 years while working as an official court reporter, freelancer, court reporting teacher, mentor and proofreader. Since 2008, she has added the title of Life Coach and patient advocate as well, supporting individuals to find ways to create that often elusive self/work/family balance. As a veteran of the court reporting field, she has shared tips and methods to help students and reporters alike put their careers and personal lives in sync.
In addition, Mindy is a relationship coach focusing on effective communication strategies to help others build bridges and bonds with the people in their lives. It was a natural segue for her to become a patient advocate after many years of specializing in medical malpractice testimony.
Mindy is part of our staff in both the capacity of Instructor and Life Coach to our students.