Events Calendar

Interested researchers, faculty, and staff are invited to register for one, or more, sessions of this series. To sign up, click here!

Visit the program webpage here to learn more!

The Improving Scholarly Communications sessions are a three-part series designed to provide you strategies to improve the clarity of your scholarly communications, both written and oral. These workshops are hosted by Paul Casella (more information below) and will take place in the Summer of 2023. Speaking for Success is the third event of this series; more information on other sessions here:

• Writing for Publication - July 12, 2023 at 11 a.m.
• Writing Effective NIH Grant Applications - July 19, 2023 at 11 a.m.

Speaking for Success: Strategies for Effective Medical and Scientific Presentations

This course reviews how adults learn as a means to examine effective delivery techniques to engage expert, peer, and lay audiences alike. Provides practical information on how to deliver powerful oral presentations in the classroom, the conference room, the auditorium, and at the regional or national meeting, as well as in workshops, over virtual platforms (such as Zoom), and during informal conversations with colleagues and potential collaborators.

Includes a discussion of voice, inflection, body language, techniques to stimulate interest and involvement, and strategies to help facilitate audience recall of the message. Addresses how to prepare for a presentation, how to manage anxiety, and how to design and use visual aids effectively.

Paul Casella, MFA

Paul Casella is a writer, teacher, editor, and producer. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Since 1988, Paul has worked with health professionals to improve the clarity and effectiveness of their manuscripts for publication, formal presentations, grant applications, slides, posters, videos, and other media for scientific purposes.

Since 1993, Paul has presented over 3,000 seminars on written and spoken communication skills to physicians, pharmacists, scientists, nurses, administrators and other scientific and health care professionals at universities, medical centers and meetings across North America and Europe. At international meetings Paul coaches speakers on their delivery skills before they present to the society. 

A founding member of the Health Care Communications Group, Paul has authored two chapters of their award-winning book Writing, Speaking, and Communication Skills for Health Professionals (Yale University Press 2001).

In addition to his work giving presentations, Paul is an adjunct assistant professor and a consultant to the faculty at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, where he leads seminars, edits manuscripts, coaches speakers, and identifies and serves the advanced communication needs of the faculty.