Speakers Boot Camp a Success for Miami-Dade AHEC

Jan. 4, 2011 - PRLog -- Miami-Dade AHEC’s Speakers Bureau recently wrapped up their first and very successful Speakers Boot Camp Series.  During the five-week series, professionals learned various skills on how to become more effective professional speakers.  While the attendees were experts and had vast knowledge in their field of practice, they did not always find it easy to share their knowledge and skills with others.

The public speaking “drill sergeant,” Nick Garcia, MBA, teaches by example, helping speakers hone their talents and better impart their wisdom as professional speakers.  Garcia covered topics such as making content stronger and more compelling, engaging the audience and making them care, and putting together strong PowerPoint® presentations.  Felicia M. Wright, clergy, stated that the AHEC Speakers Bureau Boot Camp allowed the participants “to see that the worries and fears [we have] can be eliminated as we go out and move the mountains…”  Clinical pharmacist Amtus Sami Shafiq, PharmD, AAHIVE, also praised Garcia and the AHEC Speakers Bureau Boot Camp, and in fact wished that “each session was longer.”

The overwhelmingly positive response received from the attendees of the first AHEC Speakers Bureau Boot Camp has led Miami-Dade AHEC to schedule another series during their upcoming spring semester.  The series will be extended in hours and include even more in depth training for professionals interested in becoming proficient speakers.  For more information about the upcoming series and to sign up today, visit www.mdahec.org/CE.

Anyone with specialized knowledge and the desire to be a professional speaker is welcome to join Miami-Dade AHEC’s Speakers Bureau.  It is free to join and there are no obligations.  When Miami-Dade AHEC receives a request from an agency in the community to assist with coordinating a speaker for their educational training program, or when Miami-Dade AHEC itself conducts their own regularly scheduled programs, they reach out to the members of their Speakers Bureau to see if they are available and interested in speaking.  Miami-Dade AHEC functions as the speaker’s agent and books the speaking engagement and helps coordinate the process.  The Miami-Dade AHEC Speakers Bureau and its members “are vital to the continuing education services that AHEC provides to the community,” according to Nicole Medina, Provider Services Manager for Miami-Dade AHEC.


Miami-Dade AHEC seeks to improve the health of individuals and communities by transforming healthcare through education.  We connect students to careers, professionals to communities, and communities to better health.  For more information about Miami-Dade AHEC and its programs and services, please visit our website at www.mdahec.org or contact our Marketing Coordinator directly at 305-597-3649 or Marketing@mdahec.org.  For more information about the Speakers Bureau and the AHEC Speakers Bureau Boot Camp, please contact our Speaker Coordinator directly at 305-597-3647 or Speak@mdahec.org.

# # #

Miami-Dade Area Health Education Center (AHEC), Inc. is a South Florida non-profit whose mission is to ensure that our underserved communities are educated on today’s most critical health topics and have access to quality health care.