Training scientists, engineers, and technical professionals to communicate the real-world value of their work to nonexperts has long been Melissa Marshall’s passion. Engaging, jargon-free scientific presentations, she says, are critical to whether an innovative idea or discovery is implemented—or whether it languishes from lack of awareness or support.

“What audiences really want from their scientific presenters,” she says, “is to say, ‘This is what I found, and this is why it matters.’”

Marshall ’04 Com, ’04, ’06 MA Lib founded Present Your Science in 2015. The organization trains scientists, engineers, and other technical professionals to give the types of presentations that engage audiences, move projects forward, and transform their careers. Since its launch, she has worked with a host of private and public entities including NASA, Harvard Medical School, Pfizer, and ExxonMobil. Present Your Science provides virtual and in-person workshops on presentations skills, and Marshall also offers individual coaching for high-stakes presentations.

Prior to founding Present Your Science, Marshall was a faculty member in Penn State’s Department of Communication Arts and Sciences. Early on in her tenure, she was tapped to design a CAS 100A public speaking course in collaboration with the College of Engineering, tailored to its students.

“Those students were working on such important ideas—a challenge was how to convey those ideas to people who don’t have that same expertise,” she says.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Marshall—who received the CAS department’s 2024 Outstanding Alumni Award —worked with the National Institutes of Health to train their researchers to talk about their ongoing projects. In such cases, she says, funders, government leaders, and other stakeholders are the first to determine whether a particular project should be supported or not. Those decisions, she says, “really come down to the ability of the researcher to present that work clearly.” —Lisa Reyes