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Barbara Waskover: How to Talk
to Anyone About Anything

When Barbara Waskover speaks in public these days about a favorite subject – physical fitness or protecting children from abuse and neglect -- she is likely to illustrate a point by dropping to the floor and doing 25 consecutive push ups, barely breaking a sweat, then proceeding with her topic. This often stuns and delights her audience, and makes for a memorable presentation. Not that anyone is likely to forget this fiery, self-confident presenter.

Before she became a speaker, she was an entrepreneur, as president of her own business, Automatic Mail Services, New York City's largest direct mass mailing company from 1970 to 1990, with clients that included Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, the United Nations and travel companies.

A devoted member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness since 1963, Waskover also runs five miles a couple of times a week and plays golf. Working out is one way the youthful 70-something, bronze-level Toastmaster keeps herself energized, strong and fit for the engaged life she has designed as speaker and community activist.

Another is by maintaining a full schedule of activities that range from volunteer guardian ad litem in the Palm Beach County Court system, to serving on the faculty of the Etta Ress Center of Palm Beach Community College (ERCLL) where she teaches classes in Living Better in a Creative Way, and most recently, launching a 'senior' modeling career with husband, Bob. This last pursuit came about as the result of several media appearances, including a Dan Rather special on the new retirement for CBS in 2004.

For over 10 years, Waskover has been involved with Steven Spielberg's Survivors of Shoah Visual History Foundation, during which time she has interviewed over 100 Holocaust survivors and videotaped 80 of them. She innovated interview programs for Brandeis University, Ben Gurion University, Hadassah, Jewish Federation, and Magen David, working with holocaust survivors, parents of celebrities, sports and theater figures.  She sharpened her interviewing skills during a four-year stint as a board member of a patient advocacy group at Delray Community Hospital. It was this experience that “helped me get the job with the Shoah Foundation,” she says.

In 2000, she signed on with the Census Bureau, taking an assignment that brought her into "'hard neighborhoods" and crack houses where she spoke with people "who wouldn't talk to anyone else, and letting them know they were important to me and their community." 

She also founded and moderated the "Great Decisions" series in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, for the Foreign Policy Association of New York.  In this capacity she has hosted guests from around the world, and led discussions on her favorite topics, physical fitness among them.  Clearly, Barbara Waskover walks the talk.   

Next Steps

Toastmasters International: www.toastmasters.org
President's Council on Fitness: www.fitness.gov
American Council on Exercise: www.acefitness.org