This grant is being requested to fund attendance (conference registration, transportation, hotel, and per diem) at the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) 2023 Conference in Baltimore, MD, for Dr. Kelly Hernandez, Academic Writing Coach at Miami Dade College-Medical Campus. She is part of a team of five academic writing coaches who supervise writing assistants across the eight campuses of Miami Dade College (MDC), the largest community college in the eastern United States.

The team of writing coaches has been tasked with providing writing workshops for students and staff, and Dr. Hernandez is the lead for the technical/medical writing workshops but lacks the training to facilitate these workshops for the College's future health care graduates. Effective written communication and careful documentation are especially important to medical professions, as errors in documentation can cause patient injury or death.

This conference would expand Dr. Hernandez's professional knowledge, as the mission of AMWA is to promote excellence in medical communication and to provide educational resources in support of that goal. The conference focuses on the value of medical communication, health communication strategies, the preparation of the next generation of medical writers and leaders, technology and innovation in medical communication, trends in medical grant writing and editing, and the medical communicator’s role in diversity, equity, and inclusion.