With a goal of furthering the Strategic Plan for CIRES Imperative #4-to enhance the impact, accessibility, and reach of our science and data to the broader scientific community, NOAA, educators and students, policymakers, and the general public-our committee identified relevant gaps in CIRES scientists' ability to skillfully communicate their work, particularly using graphics and data visualizations. To address this gap, the committee hosted a training series on graphic and data visualization topics with a focus on communicating to external audiences. We hosted three training sessions featuring experts on video and animation, graphic design, and data visualization, which we made available to CIRES staff as new communications resources. Finally, to showcase our scientists' new capabilities, we hosted a visualization contest which included the opportunity to highlight contest entries on social media. We hope that these newly developed resources will benefit the community going forward, provide a template for future training series, and that the visualization contest can become a biannual event.