What does it mean to truly address someone’s well-being?
For UCSF Wellness, it’s a holistic approach involving everything from emotional and physical to financial and spiritual well-being – all part of the University’s seven pillars of wellness.
With that, and growing support for well-being across UCSF, it’s no surprise the American Heart
Association recently recognized UCSF Wellness with a Silver level award among a number of other
organizations across the U.S. “for their commitment to building a culture of health and well-being.” The
designation is the third straight for the team now reporting to Stephanie Collins. UCSF Wellness first
applied to be part of the American Heart Association’s “Workforce Well-being Scorecard” program in
2019, receiving a Bronze award that year.
We have a significant opportunity to build synergies and enhance integration within well-being.
STEPHANIE COLLINS, UCSF VICE PRESIDENT AND ASSISTANT VICE CHANCELLOR
“I am honored to work for an organization that recently created a chief wellness officer role and I am
enthusiastic about the direction well-being is headed at UCSF,” said Collins, who joined UCSF as vice
president and assistant vice chancellor, People Wellness in October 2021. Wellness has reported to
Collins since February 2023 – part of an effort to align wellness initiatives and accessibility.
Before that, the UCSF Wellness team was part of Campus Life Services.
“UCSF leadership is supportive of well-being for all UCSF teammates,” Collins said.
That’s where Kathleen Yumul comes in as the coordinator of colleagues and efforts across UCSF.
Yumul, UCSF wellness program manager, is in her fifth year captaining the University’s wellness effort,
something she views as building “a culture of wellness” at UCSF. “That means guiding people to resources for them as an individual, but also being able to advocate for systems and changes to systems that support well-being,” she said.
Kathleen Yumul, wellness program manager, and Sebastiani Romagnolo, projects coordinator, welcome
wellness champions and lead them through activity instructions at the first wellness champions in-person soiree in March 2023.
large white sheet of paper with notes from meeting
Wellness champions work together to brainstorm ideas for staying connected within their team and with
other fellow champions.
Myriad of Resources Available at UCSF
Yumul’s Wellness team oversees a wide range of programs and tools available to students, faculty and
staff, including – but not limited to – Wellness Bingo, Diabetes Prevention Program, Healthy Beverage
Initiative, Step It Up and UC Moves. They’ve even brought llamas to UCSF, an event now continued by
UCSF Arts and Events.
That’s just a small glimpse into the work that goes on to foster wellness at UCSF.
For Yumul, the UCSF Wellness Champions Program is critical to her team’s success. The program brings
together UCSF community members passionate about wellness and spreading well-being across the
University. Those chosen as champions serve as departmental leaders in advocating for wellness within
their units, develop and promote engagement, brainstorm wellness ideas and attend quarterly meetings.
Another important group is the UCSF Well-being Committee, comprised of a cross-section of campus and UCSF Health leaders that prioritize wellness.
Coming together in 2021, the committee materialized at a precarious time as the need for well-being
resources was on the uptick during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Individuals are much more in
tune and aware of their well-being and holistic mental health, not just from a nutrition and exercise perspective,” Collins said. UCSF continues to offer several COVID-19 resources like virtual self-care and
access to local food pantries.
“If there was one silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was that mental health and well-being came
to the forefront,” Yumul added. That was due in no small part to Elissa Epel, MD, a professor of psychiatry and Well-being Committee member, who along with Christina Mangurian, MD, championed the UCSF Employee Coping and Resiliency Program, a partnership with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Human Resources and the Center for Digital Health Innovation. The UCSF
Employee Coping and Resiliency Program was created during the COVID-19 crisis to provide emotional
support for all UCSF faculty, trainees and staff. Collins recently received funding to reimplement COPE
2.0 in an effort to prioritize and promote well-being, resilience and mental health resources for the UCSF
population.
As they have in the past, UCSF Wellness will again be welcoming applications for Community Well-being
Grants for projects that promote health and well-being among one or more of their pillars of wellness –
emotional, physical, social, financial, professional, environmental and spiritual. They’re available to UCSF faculty, staff and students with ideas on how to make an impact.
“The first year we actually had 310 applications come through, which was huge,” Yumul said. “We had no
idea what we would get. We were able to fund nine of those projects (splitting $60,000 total).” The next
year, Wellness funded 20 total projects from a bigger $100,000 budget. They will do the same again in
2023.
Among the Wellness projects funded in last year’s group: COACHing for Coaches, A Fun Day At Stow
Lake, Dying to Talk: UCSF Heart Sounds and Microaggressions Awareness Campaign.
The UCSF Well-being Committee will review the proposals and will base decisions on the proposed
impact of projects. Applications will be evaluated based on the UCSF wellness pillars, creating a culture of well-being at UCSF, whether the projects promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in a substantial and
meaningful way, the implementation plan and feasible use of funding.
“The grants are an opportunity for people to be creative…to tap into the things that are significant and
important to them,” Collins said. “You would be surprised how many of our UCSF teammates would be
interested in your idea.”
As for the future, Yumul is excited about where UCSF Wellness is headed.
“We’re excited to grow wellness across the University and have wellness be at the forefront of things that
people are thinking about.”