Trainer
Amy Aines helps scientists and engineers build career success skills. Her students learn how to interview, give great presentations, explain research, be understood, collaborate effectively, and influence the outcome of important conversations. She partners with universities and government organizations to tailor workshops for faculty, early career professionals, mentors, and PhD students.
“The one thing that people keep talking about is your presentation. It was universally loved! All the effort you put into tailoring the workshop to our FIU researchers was definitely appreciated. Your two hours on the agenda flew by and helped make our first science communication conference a great success.”
Maydel Santana
Associate Vice President
Division of Strategic Communications, Government and External Affairs
Florida International University
“Amy Aines was instrumental in launching a workshop series for our early career science community – the Professional Advancement Workshop Series. Her presentations were thoughtfully designed to highlight diverse career options for scientists, the value of science skills, and communication methods for effective interviewing. Her engaging approach and practical activities helped participants advance their ability to pursue a variety of career paths. Given the highly competitive job market in academia and the need for science and research expertise beyond academia, her workshops are exactly what our field and our sector need right now.”
Shawn Domagal-Goldman
Branch Head, Planetary Systems Lab, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Workshop Topics
- How to Build Trusted and Productive Collaborations
- Become a More Confident, Compelling and Engaging Speaker
- How to Brand Yourself and Tell Your Story in Job Interviews
- Informational Interviews: The Essential Job Search Strategy
- Interview Like a PRO – Communication Strategies to Land the Job
- Win the Competition – Preparation for Short Talks and Q&A
- How to Request, Receive and Give Effective Feedback
- Getting to Yes – Principles for Building Support for Your Work
- Listening Skills for Effective Community Engagement
- And more…
Columbia Workshop
September 10, 2021
Workshops Enable Student Success
From landing that job to earning respect and building vital career skills, Amy’s communication programs deliver results. Here are some student success stories.
Winning a Fellowship
Rory Jacobson applied Championing Science principles he learned during the workshop to convey the importance of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and win a fellowship with John Kerry’s global climate initiative.
Giving a More Engaging Talk
“I received really positive feedback, including: “your presentation was the only one I paid attention to for more than five minutes.” I actually enjoyed speaking, which is rare, and feel much more motivated to present in the future. I really learned a lot from you and, most of all, felt like I gleaned some useful pointers for storytelling techniques that I was itching to add but didn’t feel confident trying before now.”
Paris Edwards
Northwest Climate Hub
ORISE Fellow
Delivering an Award Winning Presentation
“I was nervous about giving my first oral presentation at our local conference, the Phi Sigma Biological Honors Society Research Symposium. My practice talk with my advisors didn’t go very well. Luckily, I attended Amy’s workshop the next day and that made a huge difference. Applying what I learned, I re-organized my talk to make sure that I emphasized the most important points. I worked on my posture, composure, pacing, and vocal emphasis. I also changed several of my visuals and refined the explanation of my figures and data for clarity. All my work and practice paid off! I was one of three speakers to win a travel award, based on the presentation.”
Rosario Marroquin-Flores
PhD Candidate, Illinois State University
Founder PubNavigator
Become a Strategic Communicator
“I had the attitude that communication didn’t deserve the level of consideration and thoughtfulness that it does. Amy has transformed the way I frame and present information.”
M. Dailey – RECS Alumni – PhD Engineering Student
From: Jack Andreasen RECS 2022
Date: September 23, 2022 at 1:36:23 PM PDT
Subject:Thank You for These Tools!
I was in a rather contentious video call. I could sense the tension rising and I made the comment “I think we are seeing things differently, Here’s how I see X” and then I asked if I was clear and where I was seeing it different than them.” I did this to try and shift the conversation from accusations to discussion. Upon hearing their response, I began to mirror their language, tone and body language for the rest of the call. We ended up in a mutual beneficial position. One, that admittedly, I did not think we would arrive at!
Selected for the Graduate Research Summit
Srishti Baid attended a workshop that was part of a Championing Science book club funded by Research America. Afterwards she reached out for help on her abstract and poster to explain her research to Kansas legislators and government officials.
She was one of eight students selected to present at this special event.
Transforming a Research Talk
Parisa Asadi wanted her second conference talk to showcase her research in a clear, compelling and engaging way to set her apart from typical science talks. Here’s a glimpse of what she learned in the 12-week skill-building program.
