WWU supports inaugural U.S. Health Promoting Campuses Network Summit
On February 16-18, 2023, President Randhawa, along with faculty and staff traveled to University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB), to attend the inaugural U.S. Health Promoting Campuses Network Summit, themed Centering Equity While Moving Through Wellness to Wellbeing.
Sislena Grocer Ledbetter, Associate Vice President for Counseling, Health, and Wellbeing (Summit Co-chair) and Brandon Joseph, Director of Student Resilience, served on the planning committee. Dr. Kimberly Brown Pellum, professor of History at Florida A & M University and Dr. Sandro Galea, Dean of the School of Public Health from Boston University shared keynote addresses that centered race, equity and justice and their inextricable link to the work that we do serving Black people on college campuses.
Sabah along with presidents from UAB, Ursinus College, and University at Albany in NY served on the president’s panel and shared thoughts about being amongst the 16 college campuses to adopt the Okanagan Charter.
“Working on institutional culture is something that needs to happen - always” said President Randhawa. “We are talking about developing cultures that are health promoting, that are kind, compassionate, and that is everyone’s work. Certainly, it is the work of university leadership and keeping the focus on the culture is super critical for making the long-term change that we are talking about. The best thing that we can do as President’s is empower strong leaders like those in the room and give you the support that you need to be successful if we are going to make any progress in this area.”
President Randhawa signed the Okanagan Charter in September 2021, with the first cohort of 8 campuses in the United States to adopt the charter. A campus-wide Wellbeing Collaborative of students, staff and faculty was formed to chart the path forward for becoming a health promoting institution.
Two WWU faculty and health promotion ambassadors, Liz Mogford and Hope Corbin also presented at the Summit and shared valuable insights on the deeper meaning of wellbeing and health promotion from global and institutional perspectives and emphasized the importance of centering equity and wellbeing in the classroom.
The Summit included trips to Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the 16th Street Baptist Church, and the historic Kelly Ingram Park. Attendees also traveled to Montgomery to visit The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice.
“Attending the USHPCN Summit was an inspiring experience. First, the conference demonstrated a commitment to situating the learning, networking, and engagement to space and place as I have never before experienced – retelling stories of Black resilience, labor, and leadership in building both the south and the United States as a whole. It is difficult to put into words the impact these experiences had on my understanding of our collective national history. I am so grateful WWU was able to attend the summit—especially that our University President was able to be there and share our local vision with the summit’s national participants,” shared Corbin.
Mogford added, “Attending the USHPCN Summit was certainly the most impactful conference I’ve ever attended, and I am so grateful to have had this opportunity. One of the biggest takeaways was experiencing the importance of grounding our work in the actual spaces where we are. For example, as we sat in the historic 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, we listened to an activist and member who was there with Martin Luther King and thousands of other activists during the civil rights movement. Our guides continually reminded us how important it is to feel the sacredness of the spaces we were standing in – to experience the history in our hearts, not only our heads.” She concluded, “The summit was a huge reminder that this work is not just intellectual, it is spiritual, and heart centered. We need to talk about love to talk about justice. We have to care about each other.”
The U.S. Health Promoting Campuses Network is comprised of participants from over 160 colleges and universities. The network is guided by the Okanagan Charter: An International Charter for Health Promoting Universities and Colleges, which calls on post-secondary schools to embed health into all aspects of campus culture; and to lead health promotion action and collaboration, locally and globally. Created in June 2015, the Charter provides institutions with a common language, principles, and a vision for wellbeing in person, place and planet.
If you are interested in joining the Wellbeing Collaborative at WWU email Brandon Joseph at brandon.joseph@wwu.edu.
