The ‘World Champion of Public Speaking’ is a pharmacist who grew up in Burlington County

Jocelyn B. Tyson won the title of best public speaker on the planet by learning to listen.

“My inner critic was always telling me, ‘Yes ... but,’ ” said Tyson, who started listening instead to her “inner go-getter”— and soon thereafter was crowned World Champion of Public Speaking by Toastmasters International.

The 42-year-old pharmacist wowed the crowd and the judges at the Toastmasters International convention in the Bahamas on Aug. 19. Her seven-minute monologue “Have You Been There?” showcased her expressive storytelling and self-deprecating wit as she described herself swimming in the wrong direction at a triathlon, turning around, and finishing the race.

Tyson was one of eight finalists competing at the 2023 convention, all of whom rose to the top during six months of competitions among 30,000 members of clubs worldwide.

Taking the stage at “World,” as Tyson and other Toastmasters like to call it, was amazing, she said.

As for winning, “I couldn’t believe they were calling my name,” Tyson said. “Me? What? No way.”

Less than three years after she began attending meetings, Tyson had become the first world champion from the Philadelphia region since Aaron Beverly, representing a Delaware district, won the title in 2019.

Tyson began to attend meetings of the Voorhees Toastmasters Club not long before the start of the pandemic in 2020. It’s one of the 148 clubs in Toastmasters District 38, which serves Eastern Pennsylvania, as well as Central and South Jersey. What is now a global network of clubs was established in 1905 to help men improve their public speaking abilities.

There are 270,000 Toastmasters Club members worldwide and 100,360 in the United States.

“To see Jocelyn win world after a relatively short time in Toastmasters is inspirational to our members and potential members,” said Dennis Olson, a senior public relations strategist at the organization’s world headquarters in Englewood, Colo.

“Toastmasters is representative of the world I want to be part of,” Tyson said during an interview earlier this month at the Camden County Library’s Vogelson branch in Voorhees, where her club meets.

Movers were due soon at her Mount Laurel home because before winning the championship, Tyson was hired as a vaccine health and science specialist at Pfizer in Baltimore, an opportunity she became aware of through Toastmasters.

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Rhonda Young, District 38 director and Tyson’s mentor, said she could tell immediately that “Jocelyn had the tone, the inflections, the gestures. She had it!”

“Toastmasters gave her the practice, and the constructive feedback, to refine and polish what she had,” said Young, who has earned the title of Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM), is an IT consultant, and lives in Atco, Camden County.

“If Jocelyn has an ambition to become a paid professional speaker, being world champion creates an international marketplace for her,” Young said.

Toastmasters was established in Bloomington, Ill., by a YMCA education director named Ralph C. Smedley. He wanted to help men improve their employment prospects and self-esteem by becoming better public speakers. Women were not accepted for full membership until 1973

Like women’s clubs and other community organizations and self-improvement programs in early 20th century America, Toastmasters offered a message that ordinary people could better their chances for personal and economic success.

While its name may suggest elocution lessons or other quaint customs, Toastmasters has evolved into a digitally fluent organization focused on collaborative education, career development, and professional networking.

A curriculum of “pathways,” projects, and exercises helps members learn to handle interruptions and avoid filler words such as um, so, and like. Peer support is central: Members critique and applaud one another as they sharpen skills needed on digital platforms (Zoom, podcasts) as well as at professional and social events.

“Some people come to a meeting because they will be giving a toast at a wedding or got promoted to a management position at work,” said Barbara Snyderman, administrative director for District 38, a Distinguished Toastmaster, and a retired medical research professional who lives in Deptford, Gloucester County.

“Jocelyn came in already accomplished,” Snyderman said. “She’s a great storyteller, and she exudes confidence. But she wanted to improve her skills.”

Tyson was born in Camden and raised in Philadelphia and Willingboro, where she graduated from high school in 1999. Her parents, both professionals, worked for state government in Trenton. She enjoyed listening to accomplished public speakers and had dreams of becoming a Broadway star (”I have an inner showgirl”) but chose college and pharmacy school.

Tyson earned a Ph.D. in 2007 from the Rutgers University Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy in Piscataway even after failing grades had forced her to leave school several years earlier.

She described the experience in a speech that helped her advance in the semifinals before the championship — and was also a tribute to her father, who would always ask her whether she was willing to try again.

“She is willing to say, ‘I can be better,’ and I really admire that about her,” said her father, Edward Tyson Sr., 72, a retired principal auditor with the N.J. Office of Legislative Services.

“I was really humbled by the fact that such a simple lesson about trying again had such a powerful effect,” he said. “When you hear a child talk about you in such a positive way, you have to be very proud. And I am proud of Jocelyn.”

What with the convention, championship, new job, and moving, the last few weeks have been hectic, said Tyson.

But she’s looking forward to putting more of her Toastmasters experience to work.

“When I worked a compounding pharmacy, I only dealt with people on the phone, but now I’ll be communicating with doctors in the field and educating people,” she said.

“I want to go out, and do it, and see how far I can take it.”

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story reported the incorrect location for Toastmasters’ world headquarters. The company’s world headquarters are in Englewood, Colo.