Who is Laura?
Dr. Laura Sicola is a professional speaker, leadership communication coach and the founder of Vocal Impact Productions in Philadelphia, PA. Her mission is to help people confidently and authentically master the 3Cs of “Vocal Executive Presence”: to command the room, connect with the audience, and close the deal in any context.
She has presented to audiences in the US, Egypt, Japan, Spain, China and Germany, and provides 1:1 coaching for clients across the US and around the world.
Laura has spent over 20 years coaching, speaking, training, researching, teaching and publishing on language, cognition, culture, the voice and related effects on learning.
She has delivered keynotes, workshops, presentations, and training programs on topics ranging from leadership communication in diversity, persuasive speaking, conflict management, media training, intercultural business communication and presentation skills, to “managing up,” vocal empowerment for women, and delivering the business pitch.
Laura was also faculty in multiple programs at the University of Pennsylvania from 2001-2013, from which she also earned her PhD in educational linguistics.
Laura recognizes that while “CEO” and “President” are titles, “leadership” is an image, and regardless of one’s formal role or position, strong communication skills are fundamental to projecting your best leadership image, developing loyal, effective teams and establishing your ideal workplace culture, and ultimately maximizing one’s powers of persuasion and influence.
Laura is an advisor for the C-Suite Network™ and the SupporTED™/TED Fellows organization, has coached nearly a dozen TED speakers, and has given multiple TED talks on various TEDx stages.
She is on the advisory board for Women Network and the California Women’s Conference and has also offered continuing education credit programs for legal (CLE) and financial (CPE) professionals.
One of Laura’s sub-specialties is working with executives and other professionals for whom English is not their native language, helping them speak more clearly and present themselves more powerfully and effectively in American and international business contexts.
She has also guest-lectured at the Wharton School of Business, Temple University and Drexel University.
In addition to her doctorate, Laura has an MA in multicultural education, a bilingual teaching credential and a BA in international studies.
She speaks Spanish and Japanese (and pig-Latin), and is an avid swing dancer and chef.
Watch her TED talk: “Want to sound like a Leader? Start by saying your name right.”

CLIENTS INCLUDE
- Comcast
- Cisco
- Kennedy Health Systems
- Wells Fargo
- PWC
- Amerihealth Caritas
- The US Department of Commerce
- Benco Dental
- Boston Scientific
- Colgate-Palmolive
- Campbells
- Qlik
- John Daniel Associates
- Smithfield
- Time Warner Cable
- Wikimedia
- SPX
- Independence Blue Cross
- Chase Card Services
- The Wharton School of Business
- Chubb/ACE Group
- IBM
- Women Against Abuse
- FMC
- DreamIt Ventures
- Janney
- Philadelphia University
- The Franklin Institute
- The Institute for Education
- Mercator XXI
- The Vanguard Group
- The African Prisons Project
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Degrees:
- PhD, educational linguistics, the University of Pennsylvania
- MA, multicultural education, California State University
- Bilingual multiple-subject teaching credential, California State University
- BA, international studies, American University, Washington, DC
Selected Conference Presentations:
- TEDx Speaker, Leadership Communication in Diversity. 2016, October. TEDxJBMDL, Joint-base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, Trenton, NJ.
- Invited Speaker, Finding your Fans or Fanning the Flames? What does Leadership Sound Like? 2016, September. Presented for the Gloucester County Chamber of Commerce Executive Forum, Sewell, NJ.
- Keynote Speaker, Vocal Empowerment for Women in Leadership. 2016, April. Target Markets International conference women’s initiative, Washington, DC.
- Keynote Speaker, Advocacy in the Field: Raising the Voice of TESOL. 2015, October. ConnTESOL, Hartford, CT.
- Invited Speaker Executive Networking: Getting your ROI. 2015, September, Women in Agribusiness Summit, Minneapolis, MN.
- Invited Speaker Vocal Empowerment for Women in Leadership. 2014, July. Global WIN (Women’s Innovation Network) on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC.
- TEDx Speaker, Want to Sound like a Leader? Start By Saying Your Name Right. 2013, November. TEDxPENN, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
- Keynote Speaker, ESOL and Academic Literacy across the Content Areas. 2013, October. MID-TESOL, in Lawrence, KS.
- Invited Speaker Top 5 Strategies for Mastering Business Communication in the US and Beyond. 2012, November. Global Entrepreneurship Week, Pittsburgh, PA.
- TEDx Speaker, Redefining who we are as English Speakers. 2012 March, TEDxLAF, Lafayette College, Lafayette, PA.
- Keynote Speaker, Sounding off: Priorities and Practices in teaching Pronunciation. 2011, November. Penn TESOL East, Abington, PA.
- Keynote Speaker, Bridging the Gap: Connecting Research and Practice in TESOL. 2010, November. TexTESOL, San Antonio, TX.
- Intercultural Communication Strategies for Global Business. 2010, November. Global Entrepreneurship Week, 2009, Cairo, Egypt.
- Cognition and Second Language Phonological Development. 2008, March. Symposium of the Linguistic Agency University of Duisberg (LAUD), Landau, Germany.
- Communicative Lingerings. 2004, July. Association for Language Awareness, Universitat de Lleida, Lleida, Spain.
Selected Publications:
Dr. Sicola has published several books and articles on her primary research areas of cognitive processing in second/foreign language acquisition, phonology/pronunciation, and linguistic culture shock, including:
- Sicola, L. (2015). Integrating pronunciation in the language classroom. In M. Reed and J. Levis (Eds.) Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of English Pronunciation. San Francisco: Wiley.
- Sicola, L. (2014). “Creating the Sound of Trust.” In Trust Inc., 52 Weeks of Trust-Building Exercises & Activities.
- Pütz, M. & Sicola, L. (Eds.) (2010). Cognitive Processes in SLA: Inside the Learner’s Mind. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
- Sicola, L. (2009). “No, they won’t just sound like each other”: Attention to phonological form in NNS-NNS inter action on targeted L2 pronunciation tasks. Landau, Germany: Peter Lang Publishers.
- Sicola, L. (2007) Review of: Along the Routes to Power: Explorations of Empowerment through Language. By M. Pütz, J. A. Fishman, & J. Neff-van Aertselaer (Eds.) New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2006. For: Current Issues in Language Planning, v8 n1, pp. 119-128.
- Sicola, L. (2005). Communicative Lingerings: Exploring Awareness of L2 influences on L1 of American Expatriates after Reentry. Language Awareness 14(2-3) pp. 153-169.