Dr. Vandenberg is a top-rated professor and nationally acclaimed communications trainer, speaker and coach
Using concepts from the fields of theater and communication she’s helped thousands of men and women manage their fears and present themselves with greater confidence and impact. She’s worked with entrepreneurs, managers, CEOs, front-line staff, students and professors — and with organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to non-profits. Her clients have used the skills she teaches to achieve goals such getting a law passed, attracting investors for a start-up, landing a dream job, boosting their fundraising, closing sales, inspiring their employees, building their brand –and more.
Her professional experience includes:
Business Management
- Faculty member, Professional MBA program at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts
- Faculty member, Smith College Management Program for Executive Women
Marketing Higher Education
- Chief communications and marketing officer, the University of Massachusetts – Amherst
- Chief communications and marketing officer, Mount Holyoke College – the oldest women’s college in the world
- Board member, the national Council for the Advancement and Support of Education
- Member, National Advisory Committee for The American Council on Education’s “Solutions For Our Future” Campaign
Dr. Vandenberg is committed to helping individuals and organizations reach their potential. Whether you are aiming to do more good, make more money, or both she can help.
Theatre Education
- Board member, National Association for Theatre in Higher Education
- Adjudicator, American College Theatre Festival – the largest national competition in the field
- Director of Theater at Calvin College
- Faculty member, Theatre Department at Mount Holyoke College
Vandenberg has advanced the cause of women and girls.
- Board member, the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts
- Participant in planning the Beijing United Nations Conference on the Status of Women
- Guest speaker at international conferences on women’s education
- Presenter at national conferences on topics such as women’s styles of leadership and combatting gender bias in the workplace
- Developed, ran and taught in leadership programs for women and girls
- Mentored women and girls to claim themselves in a world that demands they please everyone else
Credentials
Ph.D. With Distinction (Theater) University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
M.A. (Speech, Communication, and Theater) University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
B. A. (Communication Arts & Sciences) Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Certificate, Harvard Institute for Educational Management, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
I grew up a people pleaser who often felt “other” and sometimes “less than.” It hurt. But I learned to claim my talent, my journey and myself. Now I’m a successful professional living the life of my dreams. The key to my transformation was learning how to present myself and my ideas with courage, competence, and confidence. As a child I delighted in being a girl because it allowed me to dress up and prance about. But I was also a quick learner, and even at an early age it was clear to me that it wasn’t girls’ minds that mattered, it was whether they were cute. This was hard for me because I wasn’t at all sure I was pretty.
One day when I was in 4th grade, I got the guts to find out. My dearest friend and I were playing princess in her bedroom. We ended up side by side in front of the mirror. The late afternoon light filled the room as we studied our reflections. “Who do you think is prettiest?” I asked. Looking in the mirror it appeared to me that she was the real princess, but in my heart I hoped she saw it differently. After a pause she replied politely, “I think every girl likes to thinks she’s prettiest.” Ugh. So that was that. I made my way home through the cold wondering if there was hope for me. I had dreams but no sense of how I could realize them if I didn’t hold the key for getting the attention and favor I wanted.
Patricia in her completed “snazzy new outfit”
“…her response was proof that I had begun to discover the power to influence how people experienced me!”
A breakthrough occurred a few years later. I was busy in the family room sewing myself a snazzy new outfit with which I hoped to wow a few people. Nearby in the kitchen, my mother was making dinner. “Hey Ma,” I shouted, “Do you think I’m beautiful?” I held my breath. She loved me dearly, but she was a down-to-earth, tell-it-as-it-is person. What would she say? After a pause she replied, “No, Patsy, you’re quite average.” And then she added something that would change my life forever – “… but I think you’ve got them all fooled.” “Shazam!” I thought. I understood her to mean that even though I may not have been born a great beauty, I had within me the ability to present myself in ways that made me very attractive. To me her response was proof that I had begun to discover the power to influence how people experienced me!
Fast forward to my college and graduate school years: I majored in theater and communications. My work in theater provided new insights into how you can use the whole self (the body, voice, mind and spirit) to communicate different physical, emotional, and psychological states — and by doing so get different responses from the audience. My classes in rhetoric showed me how to use logic, emotion, and credibility to move people — to shift their thinking or to move them to action. I began to experiment with the tools of theater and rhetoric in my everyday life, and the results were remarkable. I discovered that I could effectively choose the figure I would cut, the impression I would make, the respect I would command, and the way people would respond to me. Armed with this experience, and equipped with my trusty toolbox of proven communication skills, I gained the confidence to pursue my goals, take risks, and live life my way. I’ve switched careers, moved to new places, chosen different lifestyles, gotten big raises and reinvented myself on a number of occasions. Because I learned to thrive anywhere, I’ve been able to follow my heart.
“I discovered that I could effectively choose the figure I would cut, the impression I would make, the respect I would command, and the way people would respond to me.”
I’m on a mission to help “go-getters” get farther faster. I give them the tools to face their fears and present themselves with courage, competence and confidence. My clients have used the skills I teach to achieve their goals — such as getting a law passed, attracting investors for a start-up, landing a dream job, boosting their fundraising, rallying support for a cause, closing sales, getting a raise, inspiring their employees, and growing their businesses. I’m uniquely qualified to help because I have advanced degrees in theater and communication and have studied, taught, and practiced effective communication skills and strategies for decades. I’ve coached thousands of men and women – from students to CEOs. You can get these skills through my workshops, personalized coaching, or keynote speaking engagements. Bottom line: You have goals. Whether you want to do more good, make more money, or both – to succeed you’ll need to influence others. I’ll teach you how.
- Aetna Life and Casualty
- Allstate
- American Hockey League
- AT&T
- Baystate Medical Center
- Bellcore
- Blue Cross Blue Shield
- Cambell Sales Company
- Caterair
- Center for Human Development
- CIGNA
- Connecticare
- Connecticut National Life
- Contel Cellular
- Continental Cablevision
- Cooley Dickenson Hospital
- Crowley and Associates
- Danaher Tool Group
- Digital Equipment Corporation
- Eastman Kodak
- EDS
- E-S Sports
- Executive Office Center
- Executive Risk Insurance
- FDIC
- First U.S.A. Bank
- Freadman Steel
- Glaxo Wellcome
- GTE
- GTE Mobilnet
- Gulf Power Company
- HBO & Company
- Hamilton Standard Federal Credit Union
- Health New England
- Hewlett-Packard
- Holyoke Community College
- Human Resources Unlimited
- IBM
- Jayhawk Corporation
- Johnson Controls
- Johnson & Johnson
- Johnson and Johnson Medical
- J.P. Morgan
- Kaiser Permanente
- Kollmorgen Corporation
- Lands’ End
- Liberty Financial
- Ludlow Technical Products
- Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota
- Marathon House
- MassMutual
- McDonnell Aircraft Company
- Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
- Morgan Stanley & Company
- Mount Holyoke College
- NASA
- Neutrogena
- NYNEX
- NCR Corporation
- Pacific Gas and Electric Company
- Penton Publishing
- Texas Instruments
- The Principal Financial Group
- Schering Sales Corporation
- Shawmut Bank
- Smith College
- Southern New England Farm Credit, ACA
- Springfield Rescue Mission
- Springfield Wire, Inc.
- Strathmore Paper
- The Bank of Western Massachusetts
- The Jewish Federation of Greater Springfield
- The Merrit Group
- United Technologies Hamilton Standard
- United Parcel Service
- University of Massachusetts – Amherst
- US Postal Service
- Walt Disney World Co.
- Westcott Communications Inc.
- Western Massachusetts Small Business Development Center
- Xerox