**Transcript of Cyberseminar**

**Spotlight on Women’s Health**

**Media Pointers: Telling Your VA Women’s Health Research Story**

**Presenter: Kerry Childress**

**October 22, 2012**

**Media Pointers: Telling Your VA Women’s Health Research Story**

**October 22, 2012**

Moderator:And at this time, I would like to introduce our speaker today. We have Kerri Childress speaking for us and she is the Director of Health Systems Communications for the Department of Veterans Affairs. And at this time, I would like to turn it over to you, Kerri. Are you ready to share your screen?

Kerri Childress:I am.

Moderator:Great. You will see a popup. Go ahead and click Share My Screen and we are all set. [Overlapping voice].

Kerri Childress:Make sure that I close the popup?

Moderator:Yeah, yeah. Just hit the upper left-hand corner. There you go.

Kerri Childress:Okay. All right. Let me just get that down. Not sure how to get that to disappear.

Moderator:Are you talking about the dashboard on the right-hand side?

Kerri Childress:Yes.

Moderator:Just hit the orange arrow in the upper left-hand corner.

Kerri Childress:Thank you.

Moderator:Okay.

Kerri Childress:Thank you. Are we good to go?

Moderator:Yes. Go ahead.

Kerri Childress:Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me today. I have been a Public Affairs Officer for many, many years, more than I really want to admit. And just to give you an idea, the year I started journalism, two amateur electronic graduates developed the first computer in a Palo Alto garage. So I did not have the Internet. Did not have BlackBerries and the Department of Veterans Affairs did not even exist yet. We were still the Veterans Administration. 

In the almost 30 years I have been doing journalism and public affairs, I have had the opportunity to participate in many interviews and trained others to prepare for interviews, some good, some bad. Hopefully, though, I have learned from the bad ones and I have capitalized on the good ones.

My goal this morning is ... there we go. My goal this morning is to share some information with you and make sure you are more comfortable with sharing your research with the media: the different types of media, how to embrace the idea of being in front of a camera, and doing media interviews.

Additionally, I want to talk about how important it is to get your message out. Important for you, for your research, for VA, and mostly for women veterans.

The work you do has never been more important than it is now. Not only will the research you are doing impact the way VA does business, it could very well impact the way the nation does business.

Additionally, women veterans’ healthcare is at the very center of VA’s and DoD’s radar. You are truly on the cutting edge.

And because of the work you do, you are a tremendous resource to media. They want your insights, your perspectives as to how – as to what is on the horizon and in the world of science and medicine, and what that means for all of us. You really do represent the future and where we can go. And media is constantly seeking to interview folks just like you. And I want to help you be able to tell your stories.

There are three basic assumptions when you deal with talking about the media. The first is: reporters are not really evil people. Most are not out to get you. Most are good people trying to do the best job they can in a job that requires them to ask questions, to probe, to dig. 

We have one thing in common with reporters and that is maintaining credibility. Because if either of lose our credibility, then we lose our effectiveness and respect and the opportunity to actually tell good stories.

The second basic assumption: you do have control over interviews. You actually exercise a certain amount of control all the time. You are the expert and you have the information they are seeking. And I am going to talk to you a little later on, on just how to do that.

And the third assumption: that you view media interviews as opportunities to get your message out to the public. Every microphone in front of you is an opportunity for you to tell your research story and how it benefits VA, and most importantly, veterans. And perhaps even the population at large.

But for you guys, I am actually adding a fourth assumption. Since you have to be interpreters and teachers from the science world to the lay audience, it is essential that what you are doing can be told in a way that most people who are not scientists can understand. So for you guys we are adding a fourth assumption: assume no one else is a scientist.

Let us talk now about interviews and facing the media. I know people get apprehensive about having to face the media. I certainly do, even after all these years. But it might surprise you to know that some very famous people who are in the media all the time feel the same way.

Take Mother Theresa, who of course has passed away. But during her lifetime, she was interviewed over a thousand times. How did Mother Theresa view media interviews? Yep. “It’s harder to face the media than to bathe a leper.”

So how do we prepare for an interview? If you take a look at the slide here, I am going to talk a little bit about some interview basics and then doing your homework.

Some of the basics: know why you were asked to do the interview. Where do you fit into the story? Are you just part of the story, or are you the entire story? If you are doing research, for example, on breast cancer, is the reporter also interviewing other people who are doing research? Or is it just about VA and the research you are doing and women veterans? So you need to know why you were asked.

You need to know who your audience is, who you are speaking to. Decide then if you should do the interview and what are the risks versus the advantage. Knowing your audience can be a little tricky, depending on who the reporter is. Sometimes it is a reporter from a specific publication. That is very easy to figure out who your audience might be. But say it is your local TV station. You have a very, very broad audience there. And so that makes a difference, too, on how you answer your questions.

Know the format and the theme of the program. Again, understand if you have been asked to be on a panel, exactly what that means. Is it a panel that is being taped and then will be shown later in the video format? Or are you actually on a live panel?

And believe it or not, you really can establish some ground rules. You can let reporters know beforehand how long you have, if there are certain areas that you will not discuss because of patient confidentiality or something along those lines, and whether you are going to be interviewed live, whether you are going to be interviewed taped. All of those are things that you can actually discuss with the reporter ahead of time.

Perhaps one of the most important things that you can do before you face the media, and I call it doing your homework. It is just that. You need to know your subject inside and out. Now granted if they are asking you to talk about your research, I think it is – I would hope that you really do know the subject inside and out and much better than they do. But be prepared to talk about your accomplishments, your successes, the funding.

And also be able to address any challenges that your project might be facing. Now that might not be something that someone would think of off the top of their head, but the chances are perhaps if you go public with some of those challenges, that somebody hearing that story might come up and say, hey, listen, I can help you with that. So think about that as well.

Put yourself in the reporter’s shoes. If I were a reporter, what would I ask? Then ask yourself how you can get your good, key messages into that story. In other words, anticipate questions that the reporter might ask you. Question your position beforehand if your research could be looked at in a controversial way. Play the devil’s advocate. Conduct a trial interview with your PAO or another person in your office. 

A lot of this revolves around current events. What is going on at that time that might impact the way the reporter reports about your research? So it is also important, then, to be informed. Stay atop current events and issues and how they could affect your facility and your program.

For example, say there is a big news report about an increase in diabetes in the general population. Your PAO may even ask you if you would be willing to talk to the media as an expert related to the current research that you are doing on diabetes or whatever the topic may be.

When you have someone coming in from TV or from radio, think about what will make good B-roll. Now many of you may not even know the term B-roll, but B stands for background, and it is a term you are going to hear from your PAO. It is a term you are going to hear from the reporters. B-roll is what they show on a news piece with somebody talking over it. So it may be something as simple as someone walking down a hallway. Or it may be a picture of a doctor in an office with a patient. But somebody is talking over that picture.

It is to make the story more interesting. It is to round out the personality of the person being interviewed so it is not just a talking head. So be thinking about that. Might good B-roll be in your lab with your other co-workers in the lab? Might it be in a room with a veteran that you might be talking to or taking blood from or whatever the case may be. But think about some good B-roll. You will need that.

And then to the potential veteran participation. Much, much research does not actually involve veterans in person. But for those people who are doing research that actually involves veterans, I highly, highly encourage you to think about beforehand what veteran might be a good person to interview. There is nothing that will give your story more airtime and more power than if you have a veteran who is willing to talk about why they have participated in this research and how important they think the results may be for people in the future. So I really do encourage you to please think about veteran participation if that is possible.

Some Dos and Don’ts. Some of them are pretty well, of course, why would I not? But you might be surprised at how many people really do not think about each of these dos and don’ts.

Do: Be positive. Be upbeat. 

Put your conclusion first and then expand on that. That is one of the most important things that you can do is get it out there what it is your research has found and why that is important to people. Get that out there first. And then come back to the supporting details later on.

Use short quotes and hopefully memorable quotes. For example, “it’s the right care at the right place at the right time.” Think about beforehand what it is you want to say. It’s called—these are called sound bites. Many of you are very familiar with this phrase. But it is a very, very important phrase. Sound bites can be critically important to you and you should know those by heart before you ever get in front of the media. Pick up three principle sound bites that you want to make sure that you get into your story.

And then make your point and stop. Do Not Feed the Mike. That is not your responsibility. If you are asked a question and you have answered it, stop talking. And then let them ask their next question.

Listen carefully. Look attentive and be ready. So oftentimes and you are going to see this in the next slide, the ABCs. Listen to what the reporters ask. Repeat the question and then go into your answer. 

Always, always speak in layman’s terms. Do not assume the reporter or the public understand ANY acronyms you may use. VA is notoriously bad for using acronyms. There is one acronym you should be using and only one, and that acronym is VA. You can use VA, but none of the others.

Do not use PTSD. Do not use TBI. Because guess what? There are a lot of listeners out there that do not know what that acronym means. So please, please say posttraumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, or whatever else it may be. The only acronym that you can use is VA.

Do not snow the reporter. If you do not know something, say so. And then offer to find out. There is absolutely nothing wrong by saying, I really do not know the answer to that question, but I do know how I can find out and I will get back to you with it.

Again, avoid jargon. Jargon and acronyms. I truly did hear—and I will read this to you—I truly did hear in an interview a director of a hospital. It was not one of the hospitals that I was in, but it was a director of a hospital who said, “OIF OEF that should bring their DD214s to the nearest CBOC at a VHA facility in your VISN where the AO can work with the VARO in getting all the benefits discussed at their TAP briefings.”

Now you and I may understand that, but I will guarantee you that 99.9 percent of the people listening to that would never have understood it.

So of course, in your case, too, we are also talking technical and scientific language as well.

Another thing that you may hear people recommend that you do, I am recommending you never, never say, “No comment.” There is absolutely no reason for you to ever say, no comment, and I am going to talk to you a little bit later on a technique called “bridging,” which is something that is really going to help you not just in doing media review – interviews, but in your life at large.

One of the big reasons you do not want to say “no comment” is as soon as you say that, it gives the impression that you are hiding something. Say why you cannot answer it. “I do not have that information right now.” “It is inappropriate for me to address that question at this time.” “This would be a HIPAA violation if I answered you.”

So do not hesitate to say why you cannot answer it. But just do not go with “no comment.”

If you have the facts and cannot share them, simply say something like, “that is not my area of expertise, but I can say that every effort is being made to find a solution.” “But I can say” is what is called a bridge, and we will be talking more about that, as I said earlier.

And do not accept a reporter’s facts or misinformation. If a reporter says to you something that you just know is not true, do not be afraid to say, “This is – that is not an accurate – that is not accurate. Let me clarify that for your audience.” Please do that because that is incredibly important.

Be polite but absolutely be firm and do not use meaningless words like whatnot, what if you ... when answering questions. Needless to say. If it is needless to say, then why say it?

And there is no “off the record.” The only thing that is off the record is what you do not say. It may come back and haunt you, so please, I truly do encourage you not to use off the record. Or not to say, “this is off the record.”

The thing to remember is that a reporter is ALWAYS a reporter. Never say anything that you do not want to appear in print or see repeated on television or the Internet.

And finally, there is one more warning I want to give you that I think is incredibly important. As government employees, you must be very careful not to endorse a product publicly. In other words, you may be using some kind of very special equipment or very technical equipment in your research and you may want to talk about that equipment. And you may very well be piloting that equipment for some firm or some company. You need to be very, very careful in talking about that equipment in a way that you simply say, this is the equipment that I am using in order to come up with this kind of data. 

But you have to be very careful NOT to say something like, “I really recommend this equipment for anyone doing this kind of research, or for other hospitals that may have these same kinds of problems, this equipment is excellent.”

As a government employee, you cannot endorse a product. You can say, yes, I am using this product and the company can certainly say the product is being used by VA. You just cannot endorse it yourself. So I hope that kind of makes sense.

The Four Cs. The Four Cs of dealing with the media and I will go through these quickly because a lot of this I have kind of already touched on.

Well, every interview must be treated individually. There are some very common principles to follow to help you make your presentation more effective and these are the Four Cs that you see here. The Commercial, your point or a message to convey. The silver nuggets. The silver bullets. The sparklers. Your key messages. Your sound bites. Probably the most critical element of any interview. So decide on two or three messages you want to get across, have these ready and look for an opportunity to use them.

It goes back a ways and probably before a lot of y’all’s time, but former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was a master at firing these silver bullets. He did not hide it, either. He would ask reporters, do any of you have questions for me? He knew what he wanted to say and he was going to say it regardless. Silver bullets will change from interview to interview, so always look for new ones. And they depend much on who your audience is. Keep your messages clear, simple, short.

And you are not just there to answer a set of questions. But because you have information the audience and the reporter want to know, you have control over the interview. You are the expert for your facility on this particular topic. Credibility! Thou shalt not lie, especially to a reporter. Never be afraid to say, I do not know, as we said earlier. The most important quality of a spokesperson is credibility.

Never speak beyond your realm of expertise. This really kind of gets into, and I have advised a number of people in reference to this. This gets into the inevitable questions that reporters will ask about DoD. Well, is DoD doing the same type of research? How does DoD view what you are doing? I have heard this question asked over and over again.

Again, if this is an area beyond your expertise, do not speak for the Department of Defense. You are a VA employee; and again, bridge out of it. Just say, I really cannot speak for the Department of Defense, but what I can tell you we are doing in VA is ... So be very, very careful about that.

Never lose your cool even in the face of adversity. Remain calm. Remain assuring. Cosmetics. You know, basically, this is the non-verbal communication. Impressions often outweigh substance, especially on a medium like television. 

TV is a medium of impressions. It is interesting because studies show that seven percent of the message is communicated by the actual words, 38 percent is communicated by the voice, and 55 percent is communicated through nonverbal means. So what counts is the image that is seen on the screen. Everything you wear and how you look and act is essential.

There is an attachment – there is a media pointers guide that I have also put up along with these slide shows. I encourage you—please download that guide. It has wonderful information, very clear, very succinct, and easy to get to. And one of those is what you wear and what you do not wear. Things like – if you are a doctor and what you are working in is the clinical realm, do not be afraid to wear a doctor’s coat. Be careful with things like your nametags and pens in pockets. Get rid of those. 

Your body language. Make sure you are sitting up straight. You would be surprised on camera. Even though you feel like you are straight as a board, on camera it really looks better. So make sure you are sitting up straight. Make sure your clothes are pulled underneath you so they are not bunching around the side. There are a number of things in this guidebook that I included here that I encourage you to take a look at. It will really give you some wonderful pointers.

And listening and speaking—this is all part of the cosmetics. Look at the reporter, not the camera. Listen carefully to what they are asking you. Talk to the interviewer and concentrate. Avoid darting eyes. And try to use inflection and enthusiasm in your voice. Be assertive but not aggressive.

I encourage you to watch some news pieces, news stories, prior to doing a TV interview, for example. Please, please, three or four days before you are doing the interview, if you have the time, watch the evening news and watch people who are being interviewed. Take a look at what is working and what is not working.

And when you see somebody that is being interviewed and you are thinking to yourself, that guy is so full of it ... then ask yourself why you are thinking that. Is it something he is saying? Is it the way he is standing? Is it the way he is looking at the ground? Take a look. Double check what is making you feel that way, because that is not how you want your audience to feel about you. You want your audience to feel like what you are saying is not only important, but they believe you.

So I encourage you, three or four days before the interview to take a look at media stories just to see what works and does not work.

And the last of the Four Cs is control. A state of mind. An attitude that says you will not be passive.

Again going back to what we have already talked about in large degree. You anticipate likely questions and prepare responses. And practice them! Actually practice how you would answer them.

Remember the key messages you want to project and come across as a competent spokesperson who knows the subject. Media are always looking for that sound bite. That is why I said earlier, give your sound bite and stop. Give some space in between your different thoughts so that they are very clear, delineated areas for them to edit ... so they do not edit you in the middle of the sentence. So get your thought out and stop.

These sound bites are your silver bullets. They are the message that you want to get out to the public.

And if you are really good at sound bites, then you are going to quotable and that is what they are going to use.

Something a lot of people do not think about doing, and I really encourage you to do this, is to develop a list of negative points and positive points and then practice bridging from the negative to the positive. 

For example, “No, we do not have OB-GYN doctors on staff here. But here is what we are going to do to take care of our women veterans in the community.” Do you see kind of what I am saying?

Go ahead and prepare some of those even beforehand. Just in case they are asked. In doing this, you are using what we call bridging.

I really encourage you—if there is nothing else you take from this today, learn how to bridge because it is something that will help you in every aspect of your life: talking to your kids, talking to your parents, talking to your boss. But it definitely is something you need to master to talk to the media.

And again, the booklet that I have put up here for you to use has lots of different bridging terms that you can use. It is a phrase or a combination of words that take you back to your key messages. Such things as, “the thing to remember is,” or “what’s most important here is,” or “it all boils down to these three things.”

Again, if they ask you a specific question about the Department of Defense—very, very commonly done—do not hesitate to say with assurance and with a positive demeanor, “You know, I really cannot talk about the Department of Defense because that is not my area of expertise. But let me tell you this about VA ...” And then just bridge. That is a beautiful bridge right back in to your key talking points.

And I say this is something you should take with you because let us say you have to discuss something that you just know your husband is not going to be happy with. Start figuring out what some of your bridges are. Figure out what your key talking points are and then how you are going to bridge. In other words, “Honey, I know that you are upset, but let me tell you what we can do together to work through this.”

Those buts can be very, very positive. And so I encourage you to learn this technique, certainly for the media, but also for your life at large.

And so the ABC Method of Control. Acknowledge the question. Bridge to where you want to go. And use your Commercial. I do not have to go over all of this again. We just went over it in some detail.

But if the reporter asks you a question, acknowledge the question. That way you are sure that you 1) understand what he was asking you. It 2) gives you another second or two to think about how you are going to answer. And 3) if you connect it well through your bridge to your commercial, then it is very, very difficult for them to edit or pull your answer out of context. 

So Acknowledge the question, Bridge to where you want to go, and then use your Commercial. Use your sound bite. Use those three key messages that you want to get out there. Very, very important.

And guess what? You can say those messages two or three different times. If the reporter keeps harping back on something, give him your message again. You can tweak it a little bit if you want to say it in a little different way, but there is nothing wrong with going back to that same message over and over if the reporter is coming back to the same question over and over.

So what a good research story can do and what is a story cycle. Your story, your story truly can change the way VA and the world sees women veterans. It can have that big of an impact. What you do not only benefits veterans and VA, too, but potentially could benefit the world. Let us tell them about it. Let us tell them about it.

The other thing that your story can do is help recruit new women veterans into VA research. We all know that is one of the things we struggle with most in the research community is getting people to come into our programs. Your story can help do that.

It can also help with additional funding or getting new grants. It can help other people with their funding and new grants.

And one of the things I think a lot of people tend to forget is that your story can actually remind other researchers that maybe they need to include women in their research. Maybe the research they are doing does not have a female component to it and your story has kind of sparked an interest in them in how whatever their research is, is also impacting women veterans.

So I think that these are things that you really need to keep in mind on how important your story can be. 

Let us just talk very briefly about the media itself. I mean, is there anyone on this call who has not noticed that the daily newspapers are looking more and more like newsletters and that the evening news has a higher content of advertising than actual news? We all know that fewer and fewer people, which includes veterans, are getting their news from traditional mediums.

The question is, should we then even try to get news coverage?

And I say, absolutely! Why? Because that story, either print, TV or radio, has been rebroadcast on the web; and when someone Googles women veterans or women’s research, guess what? Your story pops up. Indefinitely.

Furthermore, your public affairs folks can post it on your website, Facebook, Twitter, as well as forwarding it to the National VA Facebooks and Twitters. 

Now take a look at how many people are seeing your story. Posting the links to these stories on VA, VHA, facility websites, Facebooks and Twitters reaches over 525,000 people including veterans, their families, and our employees. So please, never assume that just because it is a small newscast that you are only reaching a very small number of people. In the world today there are many ways that these stories can be rebroadcast.

And the most important thing I want to leave you with today is you are not alone. Help is right around the corner. Please reach out to your public affairs officers at your medical facilities. They can help you. They can guide you. They can walk you through all of these steps that I just gave you. They can help produce your key messages. They can help you research the media and also kind of research the media world at large when you are doing your interview so that you know what other things might impact that. That is why they are there. They are there to help you. 

Just like it is your job to keep them aware of all the great things that you and your program are doing as well.

And then over on the right, at VACO, too. There are people here who can help you. I put Dr. Hayes here, Carolyn Murphy, Stephen Herring who is with ORD, and my own name and contact information. If there is ever anything I can do to help you, to guide you, anything I can do, please never hesitate to give me a call. It would truly be my honor to work with you on that.

And at that, I will turn it back over to the folks and see if we have any questions from the audience.

Moderator:Great. Thank you very much, Kerri. For those of you that joined us after the top of the hour, I just want to make a quick comment. To submit your question or comment, please do so in writing using the question tab located on the GoToWebinar dashboard on the right-hand side of your screen. 

We have had several people write in asking where they can obtain the Media Guide that was mentioned. If you download the pfd of the handouts, the hyperlink is located in your reminder email, the media guide is actually the second half of that download. So once you get through these presentation slides, you will be able to see the PDF of that and you can download it and print it and use it for your resources.

We do not currently have any questions in the queue, but we can hold on for just a minute. Oh, here we go. This is a comment: We just wanted to let you know that this was a very excellent presentation, very informative and very well delivered.

So gratitude coming in from the field.

Kerri Childress:Thank you very much. I appreciate it. And like I said, if you all later on have questions that pop up or concerns and that, please let me know. I also know the field PAOs very, very well and who out in the field can be a real guide to you that has done this well. Mostly, though, I want to leave you all with the feeling that it is really important and it is an opportunity when you get a chance to talk with the media. 

It is THE way that we can really reach not just our veterans and the people in our communities and that, but also Congress. And I do not need to tell any of you that Congress is the one that provides our funding. They really are very, very interested in the research that we are doing across the board, not just in women’s research, but across the board, because so much of our research in the past—and I am sure will be in the future—truly does have an impact on our healthcare system at large across the country.

We are strategically placed in this new healthcare environment that the country is in. We are very strategically placed to be a leader in healthcare reform and healthcare research, in healthcare at large. And so I encourage all of you to be a part of that because I think it is incredibly exciting.

Moderator:Thank you. We do have a couple more comments and questions that have come in. This information is very reassuring for dealing with the spoken media. Do you have any suggestions on utilizing brochures and fliers?

Kerri Childress:I think a lot of the stuff that you see in here you have to keep in mind when you are talking about brochures. And again by that I mean, who is your audience, keeping it simple, staying away from acronyms.

For brochures it also has to be eye-catching. There has to be something about it that makes someone want to pick it up. Oftentimes that is a photograph of someone that looks like them. I know that sounds very odd, but if they see a picture ... for example, if we are talking women, if you have a brochure about women veterans’ care or women veterans’ research, have a picture of a woman veteran on the front. If you are looking for women of a specific age group, have a picture of a woman in that specific age group. People gravitate towards pictures that look like them.

So I encourage the use of photographs. Keep it simple. Make sure there is a contact on there with contact information. You would be amazed at how many brochures I have seen where there is no contact information on it, which kind of makes them useless. So make sure you have contact information on them as well.

And make sure you get them up on your facilities’ Facebook and on their websites. Do not forget to use your facilities’ Facebooks and your social media.

Moderator:Thank you for that response. We do have a couple people that have written in asking if this session will be available for later viewing. Yes, we do record all of our presentations and post them on our CYBER Seminar archives page. You can go to the HSR&D home page, look to the left navigation bar and there is a CYBER Seminar tab that will lead you to our general catalog. Also in terms of this presentation, tomorrow you will receive a followup email with a direct hyperlink to this archived session. So you can feel free to pass that along to any colleagues who were not able to join today, or anyone you feel might be interested.

And the next question we have: What if the interviewer is male or female? Should we do anything differently?

Kerri Childress:No. I do not think the gender has anything to do with it. I think what impacts the interview much more than the gender of the reporter is where the reporter is coming from, i.e. is it a conservative paper, a liberal paper. Is it a medical journal? What else is going on in the world around that reporter? If you take a look at some of that reporter’s previous stories, you will get a really, really good idea of the kind of angles that they take on stories and where their interests lie. So that is extremely helpful, much more helpful than the actual gender is, is where they are coming from. So I do encourage you to read or watch if it is TV or listen if it is radio to former stories done by the reporter. Thank you very much, Internet, because you can do that now, very, very easily.

Moderator:Great. Thank you for that response. That was our last pending question. Do you have any concluding comments you would like to give to the field? Oh, I am sorry. I do have one more thing that has come in.

Kerri Childress:Okay.

Moderator:Is it appropriate to put together a draft article for a reporter or request a final review of an article before publication?

Kerri Childress:You are perfectly willing to put together a draft article. It depends entirely on the publication. There are some, like U.S. Medicine, some of the smaller pubs that really do not have reporters that can go out and about and do interviews, a lot of times they will take your articles especially and byline it for you. I truly encourage you to do that. 

If you are talking the LA Times or the San Francisco Chronicle or the Dallas Morning News, no. They will never take one of your articles. And they are never going to let you review the article beforehand. So it just all depends.

If you are dealing with smaller pubs or pubs that are specific to your area—veterans’ service organization publications, do not forget those guys. They oftentimes will let you review your story afterwards. I mean you are certainly willing to ask. But you are going to look kind of silly if you are asking a major daily news outlet because they are going to tell you, no. And you are going to look kind of amateurish even to ask.

But some of the other pubs, the lesser-known pubs that really get into subject areas, by all means, go ahead and ask. It certainly could not hurt.

Moderator:Excellent. Thank you. Well. Hello. Hello?

Kerri Childress:Sorry. I lost my audio for a second.

Moderator:[Laughter] Well, that is the last pending question. Feel free to make any concluding comments at this time.

Kerri Childress:The one thing I want to leave everyone here ... I have been in VA for 12, 13 years now. I am on the Women’s Communications Committee. I am on a number. I am a woman veteran. And I have worked with a lot of our clinicians where I came from, which was at the VA hospital in Palo Alto. And I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you. You make me so proud, 1) to be a woman veteran, and 2) to work for VA. And so I thank you for all that you are doing and your dedication. And if I have helped you even the smallest bit deal with some media that may come down the pike in the future, then this hour was totally well spent. So I just want to leave with the thanks to all of you for what you do every day.

Moderator:Well, on behalf of our audience, I would like to very much thank you for lending your expertise today and just one last reminder to our audience members. As you exit today’s session, a feedback survey will generate on your web browser. Please take just a moment to fill out those few questions. It does help us improve our program and offer topics that are of interest to you. So once again, thank you to Kerri Childress and thank you to our audience members for joining us today, and this does conclude today’s HSR&D Cyber Seminar.

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