Wellness Champions
The Department of Work/Life & Wellness within the Office of Human Resources is committed to enhancing opportunities for employees to achieve Total WellBeing for their head, heart, and heels.
Program Mission
To foster a greater culture of health throughout Carolina by engaging and empowering Wellness Champions in every school and division.
In the United States employees spend nearly 50 hours a week at work. Therefore, worksites have a great opportunity and responsibility to support employee health by creating an environment that is safe and makes the healthy choice the easy choice.
Potential Impact of Comprehensive Workplace Wellness Programs
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Reduced sick leave |
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Reduced short-term disability |
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Decreased workers compensation claims |
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Reduced health care costs (insurer & subscriber) |
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Improved productivity |
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Increased employee morale |
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Increased employee retention |
| Wellness Champions (Champions) lead a wellness committee for their school or division (department or work unit, as appropriate). Champions are full-time Carolina employees who are passionate about improving the culture of health at their workplace. They should be well known within their school/division and be comfortable with leading a Wellness Committee. Champions represent their committee and learn wellness program management skills in monthly Wellness Champion meetings. Champions may spend as much as eight hours per month to plan and implement their wellness initiative. See the Become a Wellness Champion section below to learn more. |
| Wellness Committee Members work with their Champion to plan and implement two to three wellness initiatives annually. Committees should represent the collective diversity of the school/division and include individuals from a variety of departments and roles (staff, faculty, supervisors, employees, administrators, researchers, etc.). Committee Members may spend as much as four hours per month to plan and implement their wellness initiative. See the Participating Schools/Divisions section below to contact your Wellness Champion to learn more about how to become a Committee Member. If there is no Champion for your school/division, please email totalwellbeing@unc.edu to learn about other opportunities to be involved. |
| The Total WellBeing Team leads Wellness Champion meetings, provides wellness resources that support their program efforts and provides consultations with Champions to help them complete an annual workplace assessment and develop a strategic program plan. |
| Leaders in each school and division serve as a model to employees and students, and greatly influence engagement in workplace. To support workplace wellness efforts, leaders may add work/life and wellness to their mission statement and promote employee involvement by allowing work time to participate in wellness activities and programs. |
College of Arts & Sciences
Dean’s Office
Joy Montemorano
Executive Assistant
Physics & Astronomy/Applied Physical Science
Patina Herring
Business Services Coordinator
Eshelman School of Pharmacy
Angela Lyght
Employee Engagement Specialist
Gillings School of Global Public Health
Rhoda Cerny*
Executive Assistant
Melissa Walter*
Program Coordinator
Human Resources and Equal Opportunity and Compliance
Jessica Pyjas
Work/Life & Wellness Program Manager
Kenan-Flagler Business School
MBA
Tammy Samuels
Executive Director, Career and Leadership for MBA & Alumni Programs
Organizational Behavior
Ivonne Klevans
Clinical assistant faculty
Office of the Chancellor
Vernadette Delos Santos*
Program Coordinator – University Specialist
School of Education
Sonya Frej
Human Resources
School of Government
Celeste McGilvary
Human Resources Consultant
School of Information & Library Science
Lori Haight
Career Services Coordinator
School of Medicine
Susan Gaylord
Program on Integrative Medicine Director
Allied Health Sciences
Eileen Burker
Professor, Director of the Division of Clinical Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling
Information Technology
Lisa Crabtree*
SOM IT Service Desk Lead
Irene Baron*
Admin Support Associate
Emergency Medicine
Olga Otter
Clinical Assistant Professor
Heather Wells
Research Operations Manager
General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine
Amanda Gillespie
Social Work Practitioner
The Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases (IGHID)
Department of Genetics
School of Nursing
Cheryl Giscombe*
Levine Family Distinguished Term Associate Professor
Vinisha Dsouza*
Levine Wellness Research Assistant
School of Social Work
Robin Sansing
Clinical Instructor
University Libraries
Alison Barnett*
Business Services Coordinator, North Carolina Collection
Nadia Clifton*
Special Collections Engagement Librarian
*Co-Champions
“The Wellness Champion initiative has been a very positive experience. Being able to collaborate and share ideas across university units is a very valuable resource.”
~ Tracy Wetherby, Wellness Champion for the Adams School of Dentistry (2019-2020)
“Serving as a Wellness Champion has been an incredibly fun and rewarding experience. I have enjoyed working with UNC-wide counterparts and our School’s Wellness Champions Committee to provide activities and resources for colleagues to encourage a work atmosphere that focuses on individual and community well-being and hopefully helps us all live better lives overall.”
~ Rhoda Cerny, Wellness Champion for Gillings School of Global Public Health, 2019-present
“I learned about the UNC Wellness Champion program and the activities of various champions last year, and I felt that it was a valuable program that I would like to participate in. After participating for a year, I continue to hold the same view. For anyone who is thinking of joining, there are great resources to support you as you begin to serve as a Wellness Champion.”
~ Patina Herring, Wellness Champion for Physics & Astronomy and Applied Physical Science Depts. within the College of Arts & Sciences, 2021-present
Information about applying to the program is promoted in the WorkWell e-newsletter. Be sure to review WorkWell each month for important information throughout the year.
Champion Responsibilities
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Dedicate up to eight hours a month to focus on planning and administering wellness activities* |
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Participate in monthly meetings to learn tips, tools and resources to succeed |
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Establish and lead a wellness committee or work group of four to 12 members |
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Lead a wellness committee to develop and work towards two to three annual health and wellness goals |
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Report progress each semester to earn points and incentives |
*Co-champions will dedicate up to four hours per month
Steps for registering
- Attend a Wellness Champions interest session
- Get your supervisors’ approval to register
- Register (or nominate a colleague)
Registration is open through August 11.
Tools
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Starting the Conversation: Supervisor Approval Request Email Template |
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Steps for Success |
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Obtain Leadership Support
Leadership support is fundamental to the success and sustainability of any workplace wellness program. Leaders have great influence to shape employee and student behavior by serving a role model and working towards the same goals.
Earn Points
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Leadership funds part-time or full-time position dedicated to managing the wellness program (30 point per year) |
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Leadership provides a dedicated annual budget for wellness (20 points per year) |
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Add work/life and wellness to your school or division’s core values statement (10 pts., one time) |
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Leadership participates in the selection of your program’s annual goals (10 pts. per year) |
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Leadership celebrates members of the wellness committee or workgroup by email announcement or recognition on the school/division webpage (5 pts. per year) |
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Leadership promotes all employees to participate in a wellness program or activity (5 pts. per activity) |
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Leaderships visibly engages in your wellness activity or programs (5 pts. per activity) |
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Leadership publicly celebrates the successes of the wellness committee (5 pts. per communication) |
Tools
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Wellness Champions Program Overview Presentation for Leadership |
Establish a Wellness Committee or Workgroup
Establishing or strengthening the culture of wellness at your workplace should not be a one-person task. The most successful programs are a result of the combined effort from a supportive team focused on improving the Total WellBeing at their workplace.
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New Committees Only: Establish a wellness committee or workgroup for your school, division, or work unit (20 pts., one time only) |
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Existing Committees Only: Expand your wellness committee or workgroup to include other departments within the same building/floor/wing/suite (20 pts., one time only) |
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Hold at least 10 committee meetings in 12 months (10 pts. per year) |
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Attend Wellness Champion meetings and webinars (5 pts. per meeting) |
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Hold regular committee/workgroup meetings to create, plan, progress and update your wellness goals. Committees are encouraged to meet monthly and must meet at least six times a year to be considered active. (5 pts. per meeting) |
Tools
Assess Your Workplace Needs, Interests & Policies
Understanding your workplace health, wellness and safety needs will support your committee’s efforts, conversations with leadership, and provide you with a means to measure your success.
Earn Points
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Complete the CDC ScoreCard worksite assessment (10 pts. per year) |
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Distribute/Promote the employee interest survey with employees (5 pts. per year) |
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Achieve 30% or more participation in the employee interest survey (5 pts. per year) |
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Review worksite policies related to work/life and wellness (5 pts. per year) |
Tools
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CDC Worksite Health ScoreCard (Access limited to Wellness Champions) |
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Employee Interest Survey |
Prioritize & Plan
Having a clear plan on where you want to go and what you want to accomplish will help you overcome potential barriers and be more successful at reaching your goals.
Earn Points
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Develop an annual plan with SMART goals to address 2-3 health focus areas (20 pts. per year) |
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Talk with leadership about what a successful program would look like for your worksite and create metrics to track success over time (5 pts., one time) |
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Have your annual plan reviewed and signed by leadership (5 pts. per year) |
Promote & Implement
You’ve done the work, now it’s time to implement your program(s). Be sure to keep your workforce informed and strive to make the healthy choices, the easy choices.
Earn Points
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Hold a wellness campaign or challenge to promote healthy habits (20 pts. per campaign or challenge) |
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Establish a new worksite wellness policy (See “Advance Points”) |
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Implement a wellness activity that occurs on a regular basis, weekly/monthly (See “Advance Points”) |
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Include information about your wellness committee/workgroup and activities on your school/division webpage (5 pts. per year) |
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Organize a team to participate in a health event at UNC or locally in the community (5 pts. per event) |
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Update existing policy(ies) related to work/life and wellness 5 pts. per policy) |
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Host a Total WellBeing or GuidanceResources® session (5 pts. per year as available) |
Advanced Points using the CDC Worksite Health ScoreCard
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Implement a new 3-point strategy (30 pts. per strategy) |
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Implement a new 2-point strategy (20 pts. per strategy) |
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Implement a new 1-point strategy (10 pts. per strategy) |
Tools
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2022 GuidanceResources® session |
Have Fun!
The Wellness Champions program should be exciting and fun! Please share your experiences with the team so that we may highlight your efforts in Total WellBeing communications and WorkWell e-newsletter.
Earn Points
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Submit a success story to totalwellbeing@unc.edu (5 pts. per event/activity) |
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Submit a photo from a wellness event to totalwellbeing@unc.edu (5 pts. per event/activity) |
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Picture of Dean/Vice Chancellor participating in a wellness program or organized wellness event or activity (5 pts. per event/activity) |