Everyone deserves
to be heard.
Not everyone knows
how to make that
happen yet.

I believe communication is the key that unlocks a lot of prisons — the ones we build for ourselves, and the ones that get built for us by others.

I know this because I lived it.

In 5th grade, I was diagnosed with a severe lisp. I was the kid who started shrinking from rooms instead of filling them — convinced that what I had to say wasn't worth the way it was going to come out. That self-doubt is a particular kind of prison. It doesn't announce itself. It just quietly talks you out of the moments that matter.

What changed everything was a mentor. A coach who saw something I couldn't see in myself and gave me the keys to unlock what was already there. She didn't tell me what to say or how to say it. She witnessed what I was trying to do and helped me build on it. She coached the performer, not the performance.

And through speech and debate, I discovered something I've spent the rest of my life studying, teaching, and sharing:

I've spent the last 15+ years doing it.

As an Associate Professor of Communication at The University of Alabama, I founded The Speaking Studio and direct an award-winning public speaking program that has worked with nearly 5,000 students. I've mentored hundreds of graduate teaching assistants, built executive education curriculum for UA's Culverhouse College of Business, TCU, and Clemson, and delivered keynotes and workshops for organizations including Penske Automotive, Regions Bank, SEI Consulting, and the National Auto Dealers Association.

I'm a two-time National Speech Champion — earning titles through the National Speech and Debate Association and the National Forensics Association (individual and team) — and have coached multiple national champions on the competitive circuit. I'm the author of Engineered to Speak (Wiley Press), which came out of hundreds of interviews with professionals across industries and landed on a simple truth:

People don't need more information. They need help making sense of what they already know — a structure, a story, a reason for the person across the table to care. That's the insight at the center of everything I do.