Kaisa C. Wieneke, M.P.H.:
Lecture 1: Building a Wellness Champions Program to Meet Organizational and Individual Needs
Position: Worksite Wellness Manager, Assistant Professor of Family Medicine
Experts agree that wellness champions are vital in raising awareness and enthusiasm, providing peer support, and maintaining engagement in employee well-being. Wellness champions provide the peer support needed to improve and maintain healthy behaviors among coworkers to create a supportive environment where the "healthy choice is the easy choice". With a focus on leadership support, consistent communication and an emphasis on retention, employees with a wellness champion in their work area report increased participation in healthy living programs, an increased awareness of wellness opportunities, an improvement in the work atmosphere, and being guided to new or improved lifestyle habits. This session will review the key focus areas of an effective champion program in which wellness champions have the autonomy to define the right blend of awareness and opportunities that will meet the needs of their colleagues. Recently published results will be shared.
BIO
Kaisa Wieneke, MPH, is the Worksite Wellness Manager at Mayo Clinic's Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center and Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota. In her current role, she oversees the worksite wellness initiatives for Mayo Clinic's most precious resource, the employees. This includes the development and oversight of the Worksite Wellness Champion program, one of the first wellness champion programs to have results published in a peer-reviewed journal. Kaisa earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Health Fitness and Health Education from Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota, USA and earned her Masters of Public Health with a focus in Community Health Education from the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.