Wellness Champion Spotlight
This month Be Well is highlighting the incredible work of five wellness champions and thanking them for making the University of Tennessee a healthier place to work.
Wellness champions serve as ambassadors between Be Well and their respective department or office. Wellness champions play an important role in shaping the wellness culture at UTK by providing constructive feedback to the Be Well Coordinator regarding campus and specific area needs.
New this year, our Wellness Champions were asked to participate in the Healthy Department Certification process to kick off their new role. The certification process required champions to assess the needs in their respective departments and work with Be Well to coordinate programs/initiatives that support staff wellness.
Congratulations to the following wellness champions for being awarded the Healthy Department Certification:
- Lindsey Boggess, Arts & Sciences Advising
Lindsey implemented a communication plan with her department to ensure that Arts & Sciences staff receive information about wellness initiatives happening on-campus and virtually. Her department also hosted a virtual halloween celebration to promote social wellbeing and staff are participating in the Tennessee Trek Step Challenge this fall.
- Tammy Cate, Student Disability Services
Tammy prioritized communication with her department ensuring that employees receive resources pertaining to wellness on campus through email and virtual staff meetings. SDS has two teams competing in the Tennessee Trek Step Challenge and Tammy plans to implement a gratitude challenge to wrap up 2020.
- Jessica Hunt, College of Veterinary Medicine
Jessica was able to host a variety of initaitves with CVM employees including mental wellbeing zoom sessions with experts in the field, weekly mental health check-ins with staff, and virtual yoga. During the summer Jessica created an opportunity for staff to give back to the community by collecting cards for the nonprofit, KARM. Her team sent 291 cards full of encouraging words to KARM to give to the individuals they serve. CVM will wrap up the year with a gratitude challenge.
- Melinda Micheletto, Haslam College of Business -Dept. of Marketing
Melinda focused on social connectednesss with faculty and implemented "Brunch & Learns" as an opportunity for everyone to come together talk about teaching in a virtual environment. She also hosted a virtual happy hour on Halloween-Eve to get everyone together at the end of the work week and plans to have a virtual holiday party in December with Trivia.
- Christine Smith, Enrollement Management Communications
Christine worked with the Division of Enrollement Management's "Fun Committee" to offer an array of progams/events for staff to promote wellbeing. Some of the fun committee activities included scavenger hunts, family feud, a cookbook recipe share, and a virtual spirit week. For the smaller EM communications team, Christine organized a virtual yoga class, socially distant team lunches, coffee chats, check-in meetings, and even a virtual costume contest.
If you are interested in becoming a wellness champion for your department in 2021,
fill out the application on Be Well's website. We will be onboarding new champions in January 2021.
