The Wellness at Penn initiative led by Chief Wellness Officer, Benoit Dube and the Office of the Provost, affirms wellness as a core priority and necessary driver of life on campus. A key aim of the initiative is to provide avenues of dialogue and collaboration for the wide range of partners advancing wellness on campus.
In support of this goal, we partnered with the University Faculty Senate in 2019 to launch a Your Big Idea challenge to crowdsource ideas to enhance wellness for faculty, staff, and students at the University of Pennsylvania.
More than 400 creative ideas for services, programs, amenities, and resources were submitted. Fourteen semifinalists delivered pitches to a panel of judges and an audience at the Enhancing Wellness at Penn: Big Idea Pitch event. Three winners were chosen to receive funding from the Office of the Provost to implement their ideas. Learn more about the winners below.
Winners
Challenge committee
Benoit Dubé, Chief Wellness Officer, University of Pennsylvania
Jennifer Pinto-Martin, Chair, University Faculty Senate, University of Pennsylvania
David Asch, Executive Director, Penn Medicine Center for Health Care Innovation
Giang Nguyen, Executive Director, University of Pennsylvania Student Health Service
Jack Heuer, Vice President, Division of Human Resources, University of Pennsylvania
Chris Hyson, Senior Health and Wellness Specialist, University of Pennsylvania
Ashlee Halbritter, Director, Campus Health, University of Pennsylvania
Jennifer Canose, Associate Director for Education, University of Pennsylvania
Dominic Sisti, Director, Scattergood Program, University of Pennsylvania
John Hollway, Executive Director, Quattrone Center, University of Pennsylvania Law School
James Pawelski, Professor of Practice, Director of Education, Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania
Erin Cross, Director, LGBT Center, University of Pennsylvania
Simon Miller, Undergraduate Assembly member, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
Yasmina Al Ghadban, co-chair of Penn Wellness, University of Pennsylvania