Media Contacts: 

Fran Jackson, Director of Communication
Curry College
(617) 333-2970 fjackson@curry.edu

Robert Stefanik, CC, Public Relations Officer
District 31, Toastmasters International
(781) 632-1855 · pro@district31.org

For Immediate Release

Milton, MA --

Professor Katherine Morrison on Track to Become the Next World Champion of Public Speaking        

Katherine Morrison prevailed at round five of the International Speech Competition at the Region Seven Conference of Toastmasters International, held in Rockville, Maryland on June 28, 2008. She represented District 31 which covers Eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Region Seven is comprised of Toastmasters clubs from Nova Scotia to Virginia. There are 8 districts in the region and each region presented a semi-finalist for the competition. Each of these finalists prevailed at the club, area, division and district competitions. Katherine will advance to the final round of the competition at the Toastmasters International Convention to be held this year August 13 – 16 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. There she will compete against nine other finalists; seven from regions within the United States and two international finalists.

Katherine has a PhD in Public Health from the University of South Carolina and is employed as an Associate Professor of Health Education at Curry College in Milton, MA. She is a member Center Speakers Toastmasters in Boston and Boston West Toastmasters. She has been a Toastmaster since 2004. Her winning speech, “Stand Up Again”, was about “not being afraid to fail”; “believe in yourself” and “keep trying”.

District 31 contains 140 individual clubs with approximately 2000 members. More information is available at www.district31.org. Toastmasters International has over 200,000 members in 10,000 clubs around the world. The organization was founded in California in 1927 and now has clubs in 80 countries. It is the world’s largest non-profit educational organization devoted to communication and leadership development. More information is available at www.toastmasters.org.

This is a historic moment for District 31. The district produced the World Champion of Public Speaking in both 2001 and 2007. No other district has sent a finalist to the International Convention in two consecutive years.

The speech contest will culminate Toastmasters International's four-day annual convention, this year held August 13 - 16, 2008, at the TELUS Convention Center in Calgary, Alberta, Canada   A panel of 20 Toastmasters judges will evaluate 10 contestants from different parts of the world, all of whom have advanced to the finals following a year-long process of elimination, using club, area, district and regional speech competitions. Criteria used in judging include speech content, organization, voice quality and gestures.