Communication Training
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Compassionate Communication Virtual Workshop Series
Hosted by UC San Diego's Center for Compassionate Communication, the Compassionate Communication Virtual Workshop Series is a free, skills-based program, specially designed for health care professionals, medical educators, and researchers. Through interactive sessions, participants learn how to communicate with greater compassion—and, in turn, greater effectiveness—with patients, health care teams, medical trainees, and beyond.
On-Demand
Master the Art of Communicating Research
This free, on-demand webinar helps you structure a clear, audience-specific elevator pitch to relay your research to the lay public. The session introduces a simple tool and repeatable method to craft your message for students, funders, the media, and beyond. Download the Big Idea form.
Fall 2025 Lineup
📅 Tuesday, September 16, from 8 - 9:30 a.m. (PT)
This session introduces the fundamental principles of mediation, offering an overview of key concepts. Participants will gain a clear understanding of the mediation process, enhance their communication and listening skills, learn strategies for resolving conflicts, and recognize when mediation is an appropriate tool for managing difficult conversations.
Meet Your Workshop Instructors
Dr. Rosezetta Bobo
Dr. Rosezetta Bobo
Rosezetta brings over 25 years of experience of training and consulting in the areas of Communication, Mediation, and Diversity and Inclusion with public, private and nonprofits. Her greatest strength is specialized design training to fit and meet the needs of the clients. Her unique and humorous training style has afforded her the opportunity to train and consult throughout the US and aboard at Universities, State and Local Government, Medical Schools, Courts, and Federal Housing and Justice Departments.
Rosezetta is committed to making a difference locally and nationally with issues that lack an understanding of effective communication, she thrives to create spaces that will enrich the lives of our communities and the environment in which we live. She is passionate about conveying her deep commitment toward change and embracing differences in basic understanding that often comes within the lack of effective communication.
A recognized leader in communities, serving on boards and committees, fighting for social justice, restorative justice, citizen and police unity, community engagement and a quality education for all. Her consulting experience also encompasses training, a federal hearing officer, capacity building, boards, leadership, and organizational development.
Dr. Lisa McBride
Dr. Lisa McBride
Dr. McBride, a Ferguson, Missouri, native has an extensive career and is distinguished by her commitment to equity and justice, both in education and in the wider public arena. As the newly appointed Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. She is responsible for leveraging diversity, inclusion and belonging to drive the school’s mission of excellence in medical education, delivery of care and scholarship.
She previously served as Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion at Texas Christian University (TCU) School of Medicine while maintaining her appointment as Professor of Medical Education. During her tenure at TCU, Dr. McBride developed various signature programs to achieve Inclusive Excellence. These included the Diversity and Inclusion Mentoring Network program, Med Safe Zone training, “Black Men in White Coats” initiative, the “Out for Health” student conference, a Latina STEM+M (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics plus Medicine) and Biomedical Opportunities Summer Pipeline program, and a longitudinal Health Equity curriculum track. For such efforts, TCU School of Medicine was recognized as the 2020 and 2021 Health Professions HEED (Higher Education Excellence in Diversity) Awardee by INSIGHT Into Diversity— the oldest and largest diversity magazine and website in higher education. Additionally, she was awarded the 2022 Community Service award by the Greater Fort Worth area Negro Women Business and Professional Women’s Club.
Dr. McBride began her career as a police officer in her hometown of Ferguson, Missouri. She then transitioned to a federal criminal investigator position for eight years where she worked in various countries as an undercover operative with the US Department of Justice.
📅 Tuesday, October 14, from 8 - 9 a.m. (PT)
Do the words “media interview” send you running for cover? Have you ever been interviewed by a reporter and afterward said, “Never again”? Do you wish you understood more about the skills necessary to perform well in an on-camera interview? Media interviews do not have to be this difficult. In this webinar led by Marcy McGinnis, veteran CBS News broadcast executive, you will learn how to prepare for media interviews with various audiences and get camera-ready in an inclusive, supportive environment.
Meet Your Workshop Instructor
Marcy McGinnis
Marcy McGinnis
Marcy McGinnis is a co-founder of Exact Communication, and a certified executive leadership and career coach with expertise in communication and media training.
Marcy uses her extensive experience in broadcast media and higher education to help professionals improve their public speaking, presentation, interviewing, and storytelling skills. She concentrates on strengthening their confidence with all types and sizes of audiences, in person or virtually, on multiple outlets including television, radio, print, podcasts, and digital.
As a career coach, Marcy believes that strong leadership is at the core of professional success whether one is at an entry level, mid-career, or executive level. She guides professionals in all stages of their leadership and career development.
Marcy’s career at CBS News spanned three decades. She rose from an entry-level position through the producing ranks to the #2 position in the news division. As senior vice president, she ran worldwide news coverage and newsgathering for eight years.
Prior to her SVP role, she was based in London, ran CBS news coverage of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and won three national Emmy Awards.
After CBS News, Marcy became founding associate dean of the Stony Brook University School of Journalism, where she taught and trained hundreds of future TV, radio, print, and digital journalists. At Stony Brook, she also played a crucial role in the creation of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science and was part of the team that trained scientists to communicate their work in the U.S. and around the world from 2009 to 2020.
📅 Tuesday, November 6, from 8 - 9 a.m. (PT)
Op-ed columns and letters to the editor offer an easy way to make yourself heard by the wider world. In these short pieces of writing, you can use your expertise and your credentials to provide accurate information, correct errors (or lies), and advocate for policies you support. It’s a public service — and it can be fun to do!
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Meet Your Workshop Instructor
Elizabeth Bass
Liz Bass
Liz Bass is a writer and editor who was the founding director of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University. In that role, she led courses and workshops to help scientists and medical professionals speak and write more effectively, both to explain their work outside their field and to advocate for policies they support. Earlier, as a print journalist specializing in health and science, she supervised work that won the Pulitzer Prize and co-authored several medically oriented books.
📅 Tuesday, December 4, from 8 - 9 a.m. (PT)
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Meet Your Workshop Instructor
Thomas Dooley
Thomas Dooley
For the past decade, Thomas Dooley has pioneered the health humanities at various hospitals and medical schools, serving as poet in residence at Mount Sinai Hospital and New York Presbyterian Columbia University Medical Center. Currently, he is the inaugural resident poet at UCSD’s Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion and directs the humanistic medicine program for Atlantic Health System, where he offers narrative medicine seminars for medical residents, nurses, and hospital staff, in addition to providing narrative interventions at the bedsides of patients and families. He has been honored by the New Jersey Hospital Association with its 2025 Social Impact Award, NJBiz Magazine for Workplace Wellness, and the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey named him a Changemaker 2025 for arts and medicine leadership. Thomas’ poetry and collaborations have been published widely, notably on PBS NewsHour and National Public Radio, with various literary journals, and his debut poetry collection Trespass was a winning selection for the National Poetry Series, published by HarperCollins. His second book of poetry, not ghost but man, is due out in 2026