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Welcome to the Q2 2026 newsletter.
Welcome to the Q2 2026 newsletter.
CHAPTER NEWS
CHAPTER NEWS
Celebrating Earth Day and Building Connections
Upcoming Book Club on September 21, 2026
Board of Director Update
Call for Interviews!
FEATURE ARTICLES
FEATURE ARTICLES
Book Club Notes: Like by Megan C. Reynolds
JOB BOARD
JOB BOARD
Looking for Freelancing Opportunities
CHAPTER NEWS
CHAPTER NEWS
Celebrating Earth Day and Building Connections
Celebrating Earth Day and Building Connections
By Angie Herron
On April 18, 2026, AMWA North Central Chapter members joined Friends of the Mississippi River (FMR) for their annual Earth Day Cleanup. In support of the planet that supports us, we did a little spring cleaning outside in the lovely spring weather (ie, 15 °F windchill, with 30 mph wind gusts). While we helped restore the land around the mighty Mississippi, we also enjoyed the beauty of the river gorge. We spotted an eagle and snowdrops (the flower not the precipitation, thankfully), hiked trails, and even did some light bouldering—all while collecting a mountain of litter and protecting wildlife and the environment from pollutants. What a great way to engage with planet Earth while also strengthening and building connections with fellow medical communicators.
And then, after all that … pizza!
Thank you to everyone who joined us and to FMR for hosting such a worthwhile, enjoyable event!
Do you have any feedback on this event or suggestions for future ones? Please email one or both of the Angies (angieherron@amwanorthcentral.org, spar0019@umn.edu).
Upcoming Book Club on September 21, 2026
Upcoming Book Club on September 21, 2026
By Paul W. Mamula, PhD, Book Club Lead
Our Book Club meeting date has changed due to a scheduling conflict. It will meet on September 21, 2026, at 7 pm (virtually) to discuss Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy by Mary Roach. The book describes the processes by which we are increasingly becoming able to produce body parts from skin and cartilage to organs. In her inimitable fashion, she mixes the history, processes, and problems and pitfalls of doing so in a compact, nontechnical volume. We read one of her earlier books in 2015: Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (January 2015). She is the author of numerous single topics books: Stiff (cadavers), Bonk (sex), Grunt (war), and Fuzz (nature), to name a few. She is an engaging writer, and her books are always informative with a playful style. Do join us for a stimulating discussion, even if you have not read the book. Hope to see you there!
Board of Directors Updates
Board of Directors Updates
New Co-Treasurer
New Co-Treasurer
Amy Molan is a Medical Science Writing Team Manager at Medtronic with over 15 years of experience in scientific communication. She holds a PhD in molecular biology and a BS in biochemistry from the University of Minnesota. Beyond typical scientific communication activities such as supporting manuscripts and congress presentations, she has expertise in evidence strategy, genome engineering, people management and medical affairs. In her free time she enjoys mountain biking, snowboarding, playing board and video games, and internationally traveling with her husband and daughter.
Welcome to the team, Amy!
New Membership Chair
New Membership Chair
Erynn Smith is an early-career medical writer based in Shoreview, MN. She has a decade of scientific communications experience spanning academic research publications, health communications content, and technical regulatory writing in the medical device industry.
Erynn earned her PhD in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics from the University of Minnesota, where she studied a rare neuromuscular wasting disease and learned to effectively translate complex scientific information into accurate, digestible, and engaging communications for healthcare provider, caregiver, and patient audiences. She has co-authored eight peer-reviewed publications and dozens of abstracts, posters, slide decks, and conference materials.
After graduation, Erynn joined Diasorin as a product development scientist and extended her skills in technical writing, editing, project management, and cross-functional collaboration to author technical documentation supporting successful regulatory submissions for diagnostic medical devices. She is eager to grow her portfolio and serve new clients as she pursues patient-centered healthcare communication that bridges the gap between science that matters and the humans to whom it matters most.
Welcome to the team, Erynn!
New Webmaster
New Webmaster
Daniel Gilmore, DC, is a healthcare professional, educator, and medical communicator with nearly two decades of experience spanning clinical practice and higher education. After years in clinical practice, he served as a professor in the schools of health sciences and public health, where he taught and mentored students across a range of healthcare disciplines at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. An active member of the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), Dr. Gilmore also serves as a Medical Reviewer for the MedReport Foundation. He is particularly interested in medical communications, continuing medical education, and translating complex scientific and medical information into clear, engaging content for healthcare professionals and broader audiences. As Webmaster for the AMWA North Central Chapter, he is excited to support the chapter's mission and contribute to its continued growth and success.
Welcome to the team, Dan!
Call for Interviews!
Call for Interviews!
“Member Moment” column is looking for members to be featured in upcoming editions of the Newsletter. If you are interested in being interviewed and sharing your career journey, insights, and a few personal tidbits, please reach out to Tess van Ee (tssvanee@gmail.com) to get on the interview list. This is a great way to get to know our vibrant community and we appreciate your participation!
FEATURE ARTICLES
FEATURE ARTICLES
Book Club Notes: Like by Megan C. Reynolds
Book Club Notes: Like by Megan C. Reynolds
By Paul W. Mamula, PhD
Our Book Club met virtually on April 27, 2026, to discuss Like: A History of, like, the World’s Most Hated (and, like, Misunderstood) Word. We opened the meeting to AMWA members in other chapters and were delighted to have 5 new attendees: from New Hampshire, New York, the greater Chicago area, and Indiana. About half of the 8 attendees had read the book; the others were interested in reading it. The mix made for a lively discussion.
The Book
Like is a compact book, 244 pages long, organized into 7 chapters, a conclusion, chapter references, and acknowledgments. Divisions within chapters are labeled as “Interludes.” In her introduction, Reynolds, an editor at Dwell, mentions she has a nonlinear thought process, and it is evident in her writing style. Her chapter references provide more scholarly articles for those who want to dig deeper. Although quirky, the book is a fast, fun read.
Like provides a walk through the word’s different uses (conjunction, noun, adjective, adverb, spacer, pause word, among others), but focuses heavily on its usage in conversation. It touches modern texting and media and discusses similar words in other languages. Of note, Chapter 4 covers women’s role in the development of language; Chapter 5, the Chinese term, nèi ge, used in a fashion similar to “like.” Reynolds is of Chinese ancestry, and one of our attendees, Alice Zhao (the book coordinator of the Greater Chicago Area AMWA chapter), explained how Chinese speakers use nèi ge (roughly translates as “that“).
Those expecting a more linguistically sophisticated book like Gretchen McCulloch’s Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language will be disappointed, but Like provides plenty to think about without being too pedantic or scholarly.
Positive Thoughts
Our group liked the book, and the myriad usages of “like” inspired wide-ranging comments. Because of its contemporary tone, Like allowed everyone to participate.
In addition to nèi ge, our group mentioned other examples of pause words. I spent a year in Beirut, Lebanon, and noted that “yanni” (“you know”) was used as much as we would use “like.” Others pointed out such words or phrases— “you know,” “man,” and “you know what I am saying.”
Reynolds spends some time expounding on the nonprint media. She describes the need to strip recorded interviews of too many “likes” without removing the remove conversational tone. In a commercial for an insurance company, I remember a man commenting on his friend’s “like”-filled date recap: “She might have liked you better if you didn’t say ‘like’ every other word.”
Not So Sure About That
None of us could decide what to make of Reynolds’ claim that language change is driven by women, particularly young women. She sets forth the argument early:
“For all the jaw flapping men seem to do about what women are up to and why it’s generally bad, it is worth noting that, by and large, women are the innovators when it comes to the evolution of language (p 6).”
Although Reynolds backs up her arguments with scholarly references, one might counter that language is always evolving and that change is driven by multiple factors. It seemed to us that her argument was a stretch; both men and women make contributions.
Sometimes Reynolds goes a little too far with contemporary usages. Mary Knatterud said, “I got a kick out of this quick read, and I now know what the retronym ‘hard pants’ (p 91) means! But I got tired of her too-frequent nods to TikTokers, podcasters, and other informal, supposedly with-it language influencers. I still cringe when people (typically much younger than moi) skip, as she does, the ‘from’ in ‘graduated high school’ (p 197).”
Her section on girls in movies aligns with her message about women as drivers of language change, although as we say in Indiana, “That’s the long way around the barn.” It also seemed long and oddly placed. One of our attendees correctly pointed out that the movie “Valley Girl” (1983) was one potential origin of “like” in contemporary speech. I remember hearing similar usage by a colleague from California in the late 1970s.
Some of Reynolds assertions are a bit much and a little too abrasive. Knatterud added, “Sometimes Reynolds is just plain insensitive, as when she jingoistically posits a ‘uniquely American desire to innovate, to improve, and to forge a path ahead into the future’ (p 45), or when she betrays ageism toward ‘a generation staring irrelevancy in the face and clinging to the now-outdated familiar’ (p 51), or when she blithely proclaims (huh?) that life is ‘longer than it needs to be’ (p 217).”
Final Thoughts
We liked the book. Knatterud emphasized, “Despite Reynolds’ occasional slip-ups in wording, eg, ‘imminently watchable’ (p 158), the book has much to offer—especially regarding full-of-meaning uses of ‘like,’ whether as the stereotypical Valley Girl quotative or as a discourse marker/particle.”
JOB BOARD
JOB BOARD
Announcements
Announcements
Looking for Freelancing Opportunities
Looking for Freelancing Opportunities
Erynn Smith is open to contract and part-time positions and is eager to pursue a range of writing projects to broaden her portfolio. She is mostly interested in publications, medical communications, and patient education writing, and she is expanding into promotional writing as well. Her most immediate value-add to clients is in publications.
Erynn holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and have nearly a decade of scientific and biomedical writing experience in academia and the medical diagnostic device industry, with background in nonclinical regulatory writing.
If you have an opportunity for Erynn, please contact her at erynnj97@gmail.com.
Are you looking for work? You know someone who’s hiring? Please reach out! The job board will be updated in every issue of the monthly newsletter. If you’d like to add your name to this list, please contact Dora Miedaner (dora.miedaner@gmail.com).
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