Posts by: Heather Reiff

This year, COMPASS is celebrating over 25 years of supporting science communication and engagement. Since our founding, we’ve had the privilege of learning alongside tens of thousands of passionate professionals who are working on some of the most pressing environmental and social challenges of our time — from conservation to wildfire management, marine carbon ...

Over the years, we’ve been asked for tips on how we create presentations. A key thing that we always try to remember is to use the same principles that we talk about with the Message Box (knowing your audience, crafting your messages with them in mind, limiting your key points to 3-5 things, sharing the ‘So What?’), but to apply them visually, as well as with...

Red Cross Phlebotomist: So, do you work here on campus? Me: Yes. RCP: What do you do? I pause. I don’t know about you, but this is a tough question for me to answer in casual conversation. How much information should I give? How do I really describe my job in a few lines? Enter: The Elevator Speech. I have only done this once in an elevator, but I ...

For as long as I can remember, I have been enamored with all things ocean. I expressed my passion as a scuba instructor, taking kids diving and showing them how remarkable different ocean ecosystems are. My favorite part was always witnessing “light bulb moments” - when they saw something underwater that really triggered their excitement. This moment is often c...