Nancy Buffington has spent most of her life exploring the power of the word. She holds a PhD in English, and taught college writing and literature for more than 20 years coast-to-coast. Teaching public speaking at Stanford helped her discover the transformative power of face-to-face communication. She left academia and opened a communications coaching practice in 2010, working with clients on five continents. She helped start TEDxBoise in 2015, and has coached dozens of TED and TEDx speakers; she co-founded Next Level Women Leaders, a unique training company for professional women. She works with a range of non-profits, and helped several EDs redesign their fundraisers and overall messaging in the wake of COVID-19. In all her training and coaching, She lives in Boise, Idaho, sees her two grown sons several times a week, and spends her evenings as lead singer in a soul band.