Carolina Connections – November Newsletter
| As we enter the busy holiday season, we are excited to start preparing for 2026. Importantly, we have our 2026 chapter executive committee slate of officers in place to lead our chapter forward in the new year. Raleigh/Durham folks, we hope to see you at our holiday party on Dec 10th. Asheville and Triad chapter members, please register for your local holiday parties on Dec 11th and Dec 18th, respectively! The call for proposals for our 2026 Chapter Conference is now open, due Jan 18th. We also have an opening on our 2026 Board of Directors – could it be filled by you? Read on below for these updates, plus news from our AMWA national conference in Phoenix, and for the session report from our September hybrid AMWA-NCRAF panel session if you couldn’t attend. |
2026 Executive Committee Slate and a Board of Directors Opening!
 At the Oct board Meeting, the chapter’s Board of Directors approved the 2026 Executive Committee Slate (to assume office in Feb 2026): -President: Abigail Agoglia (current President-elect, and 2023 and 2024 conference chair) -President-Elect: Nina Oshiokpekhai (current Website Manager, 2025 conference co-chair, and 2022-2024 chapter secretary) -Treasurer: Simone Otto (2022-present Treasurer and 2019-2021 chapter secretary) -Secretary: Michaela Price (current Member Liaison) Additional nominations for the Executive Committee may be submitted and must be received by Dec 31st. Nominations must be signed by at least 10 chapter members in good standing and must be accompanied by an email from the candidate stating that they will serve if elected. Submissions should be sent to the chapter President. The following position is open on our Board of Directors for 2026: -Website Manager If you are interested in filling this role, please complete our Volunteer Interest Form. If you have filled the form in the past but did not indicate an interest in this role, feel free to submit the form again and state “Website Manager” under “Other.” |
AMWA Carolinas Holiday Parties
 If you are in the RTP, Asheville, or Triad area, join your AMWA Carolinas Chapter colleagues for a festive and free holiday party! This is an opportunity to connect with fellow members over free drinks and appetizers, share season’s greetings, and enjoy some time away from the keyboard. These holiday party events are only for AMWA Carolinas chapter members. A special thank you to our local networking coordinators Molly Rodriguez, Leslie DeCraene, and Madelyn Mauterer for organizing these events! RTP holiday party details Date: Wed, Dec 10, 2025 Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm Location: Page Road Grill, 5416 Page Rd, Durham, NC, 27703 Register here Asheville holiday party details Date: Thu, Dec 11, 2025 Time: 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Location: Farmese Cocktail Lounge, 5 Biltmore Ave., Suite C, Asheville, NC 28801 Register here Triad holiday party details Date: Thu, Dec 18, 2025 Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm Location: Darryl’s Wood Fired Grill, 3300 W Gate City Blvd, Greensboro, NC 27407 Register here  |
2026 Chapter Conference: Call for Proposals and Save the Date
 AMWA Carolinas wants YOU to share your expertise and ideas at the 2026 Carolinas Chapter Conference, happening on Fri May 15, 2026 at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, Durham, NC! This is an excellent opportunity to help share your knowledge with medical communicators and to engage in a challenging & fun professional development activity! Click here by Sun Jan 18, 2026 to submit a proposal for an educational session or a lunchtime roundtable. Consider these topics for either beginner or more advanced levels: -Nonregulatory medical writing (eg, continuing medical education, patient education, grants, manuscripts, scientific writing) -Regulatory writing (eg, orphan drugs, pharmacokinetics, oncology trial designs, estimands) -Soft skills (eg, conflict management, influencing teams, leadership, remote work) -General writing & editing skills (eg, grammar, tips from editors to writers)Freelancing (insurance, pricing, lead generation, marketing) -Technology trends & efficiencies (eg, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity) -Breaking into medical writing (introductory topics, writing assessments, interviews) |
AMWA Carolinas 5-Year Service Awards
| In 2024, AMWA Carolinas began recognizing volunteers who completed 5 years of service to the chapter with awards. At the AMWA national conference in Phoenix this month, President-Elect Abigail Agoglia presented a 5-year Service Award to Demetrius Carter for his service to the chapter as President-Elect (2021 and 2022), President (2023), Immediate-Past President (2024), and Chapter Advisor (2025). Thank you for your dedicated service to our chapter, Demetrius! Thank you also to our historian Maria Cardenas for compiling our chapter’s volunteer records to make this effort possible. To view our previous 5-year service award recipients, click here. President-Elect Abigail Agoglia (left); Award Recipient Demetrius Carter (right)   |
AMWA Chapter Dinner in Phoenix
| Thank you to the 30 colleagues (pictured below) who joined us for the Chapter Dinner at Arizona Wilderness Brewing Company in Phoenix. We enjoyed catching up with old friends, making new friends, and a delicious buffet. Huge thanks to President-Elect Abigail Agoglia for planning this fantastic event for us! Our chapter was also honored by a surprise guest speaker from the CEO of Letters to a Pre-Scientist, Lucy Madden. The mission of Letters to a Pre-Scientist is to facilitate one-on-one connections to humanize STEM professionals, demystify STEM career pathways, and inspire all students to explore a future in STEM. To learn more about the organization, click here. To learn more about volunteer opportunities with the organization, click here.  |
AMWA-NCRAF September Event Session Report
 A session report from our September hybrid event on consulting and freelancing is now available on our website here. Thank you to our author Melissa Growney, our peer-reviewer Taylor McNeely, and our panelists Erin O’Reilly, Dorothy Keine, Tara Hun-Dorris, and Maria Oyaski for this resource. |
Featuring our Members on the Chapter Website
 We want to hear from YOU and celebrate YOU – our chapter members! Do you have a professional achievement that you would like to share with the Carolinas membership in the chapter newsletter and on our chapter website? Professional achievements cover a range of items, from being selected to present an education session/poster at the AMWA national conference, receiving an award, being featured in/writing an article for the AMWA journal, or a new job. If you have a professional success that you would like to share, please submit a brief summary for consideration to the AMWA Carolinas President. To view our past member highlights on the chapter website, click here. |
Volunteer With Our Chapter! Call for Charlotte LNC and Insurance Researcher
We are in search of a local networking coordinator in the Charlotte area. If you live in that area and would like to organize a small dinner/networking event for the members in your area, please volunteer! Being an LNC is as easy as picking a restaurant, date and time, and letting us know by sending an email to the AMWA Carolinas President. We will advertise the event in the monthly newsletter and set up a registration link for members to sign up. This can be either a short-term or long-term role. We are also looking for an insurance researcher volunteer to support the chapter’s operation goals. This is a short-term role. If you are interested in filling any of the above roles, please complete our Volunteer Interest Form. If you have filled the form in the past but did not indicate an interest in this role, feel free to submit the form again and state ‘LNC-Charlotte’ or ‘Insurance Researcher’ under ‘Other’. |
