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WorkLife Wellbeing:

Health Promotion for Faculty and Staff

Wellbeing at MSU Newsletter

University Health and Wellbeing is launching a new campus-wide newsletter to keep MSU faculty and staff informed of health news, events, and best practices around campus. Sign up for this newsletter here!

 Take Your Child to Work Day 2025 Information


Health Promotion and Engagement WorkLife Wellbeing for faculty and staff honors each employee as a complete person both inside and outside of work. An employee’s overall wellbeing is influenced by numerous aspects of both their work environment and life circumstances. To improve employee wellbeing, we must consider the social determinants at play, including their work-life balance, caregiver responsibilities, workplace environment, finances, as well as their emotional, mental, and physical health.

puzzle pieces with text: taking the piecesWhen asked, “What would make your current job more satisfying?” WorkLife balance (38%) was the second most selected aspect, immediately following compensation and benefits (62%). With team dynamics and culture (36%), professional development (34%) and recognition and feedback (32%) close behind. 

-2024 HERC Job Seeker Survey

2 Ws made up of pizzle pieces with text: making them fit“The ability to integrate work and non-work demands rests on the human needs of autonomy and flexibility. Organizations that increase worker autonomy, or how much control one has over how they do their work, and whose workplaces provide greater flexibility, see workers who are more likely to succeed and retain staff for longer.”

- US Surgeon General's Framework

Faculty and Staff Health Promotion:
Educational Sessions

three balls balancing 2 sticks with worklife balance written on themOur work and careers are central to our sense of identity, meaning and purpose, achievement, and belonging. We seek to provide shared knowledge about workplace culture and practices that attract and retain values driven employees. Our purpose is to improve the wellbeing of all MSU employees by providing educational and community building opportunities aimed at creating a whole person workplace culture at MSU.

Registration for all educational sessions is OPEN!
Register below for any of the FREE monthly educational sessions happening virtually and in hybrid formats to learn more about:

Who can join?

The WorkLife Wellbeing Series is FREE and open to all MSU community members, including all faculty, academic staff, support staff, postdocs, and students.

Registration and Class Descriptions:

Join the FREE educational sessions of your choosing to take steps toward you and your team’s WorkLife Wellbeing:

Registration for all educational sessions is currently open. Register for classes below:

  • Building Resilience to Avoid Burnout

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    Date: January 14, 2025
    Time: 1-2 p.m. (with optional consultations from 2-3 p.m.)
    Location: Virtual

    Description: Build your resiliency to avoid burnout by boosting your protective factors such as having caring and supportive people in your life. The goal of this workshop is to learn to recognize the symptoms of burnout. To discuss occupational burnout. Learn ways to build resilience to avoid burnout. Participate in activities to practice skills to deal with burnout.

    Speaker: Georgina Guzman, Health Educator, MSU Extension

    photo of presenter Georgina GuzmanGeorgina Guzmán is a Health Educator at Michigan State University Extension. She received her bachelor's degree in social work from Ferris State University and her master's in arts with a concentration in Family and Consumer Sciences from Western Michigan University. She is trained in Mental Health First Aid. As a health educator, Georgina facilitates a variety of social emotional and behavioral health programs, chronic pain, and disease self-management, falls prevention and older adult wellness. She is bilingual and some of her classes are available in Spanish.

  • Making the Move Toward Long-term Financial Security

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    Date: February 11, 2025
    Time: 1-2 p.m. (with optional consultations from 2-3 p.m.)
    Location: Virtual

    Description: For anyone halfway down the road to retirement, this webinar is a critical checkpoint. It takes you through the keys to successful money management, how to juggle competing financial demands and retirement saving strategies that can help put you on the path to lifelong financial security. We'll look at how to:

    • Understand what you're aiming for

    • Consider your priorities

    • Put your spending plan together

    • Know the ways to save

    Speaker: Justin Braman, Financial Consultant, TIAA

    Justin Braman is a Financial Consultant at TIAA, a Fortune 100 financial services organization and leading provider of asset management and retirement services for the academic, research, medical and cultural fields. In his role, Justin is focused on helping participants plan for their financial wellbeing and retirement readiness. He meets with employees one-on-one to provide personalized counseling, education, and advice, including specific asset allocation and fun selection recommendations using an advice methodology from an independent third-party based on the plan's investment options.

    Justin began his financial services career in 2012 and has been in TIAA since 2015. He serves our institutional clients in the State of Michigan from the local East Lansing TIAA office.

    He holds an Associate of Business Degree in Financial Institutions from Lansing Community College and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance from MSU Denver. He holds FINRA Series 6, 7, 63 and 66 registrations while maintaining Life, Health, and Variable Annuity licenses from the States of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

  • How to Support Spartans Navigating Substance Use Disorder and Recovery

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    Date: March 11, 2025
    Time: 10-11 a.m. (with optional consultations from 11 a.m.-12 p.m.)
    Location: Virtual

    Description: As part of the WorkLife Wellbeing Series, join Dr. Cara Poland, Associate Professor in MSU College of Human Medicine, and Dawn Kepler, Coordinator for MSU Collegiate Recovery Community, for a conversation about how to support Spartans navigating substance use disorder and recovery. We will discuss how to create and maintain recovery ready workplaces where faculty and staff feel comfortable asking for help and are supported by practices and resources that promote successful and thriving employees.

    Speakers: 

    • DAWN Kepler, Collegiate Recovery Community Coordinator
    • Dr. Cara Poland, Associate Professor, MSU College of Human Medicine 
    photo of presenter Dawn KeplerDawn Kepler earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from MSU, and prior to her current position, coordinated the Michigan Campus-Community Coalition providing statewide training, networking, and advocacy for substance use professionals from higher education institutions. As an individual in recovery for over 20 years, she is passionate about the work she has done in the substance use disorder prevention and recovery fields for over ten years. In addition, her background includes improving behavioral health program development by bridging the research on program design with service delivery to maintain fidelity, achieve outcomes, and promote sustainability.

    photo of presenter Cara PolandDr. Cara Poland is a recognized expert in addiction medicine. She is a faculty member at Michigan State University. She earned her medical degree from Wayne State University and was trained in internal medicine at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan and in addiction medicine at Boston Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. She received her master’s degree in education from Boston University. She has an interest in educating healthcare providers and providers-in-training to improve care for patients with substance use disorders particularly during pregnancy and early parenting.
  • The Pillars of Creating Effective Caregiving Partnerships

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    Date: April 8, 2025
    Time: 1-2 p.m. (with optional consultations from 2-3 p.m.)
    Location: Virtual
    Speaker: KC Austern

    Description: As our population ages more and more people find themselves in caregiving roles, and balancing those responsibilities with work and life is a challenge. Building effective caregiver partnerships requires planning, resource knowledge, and self-care.

    • Objective 1: Understand the importance of having conversations with care partners to plan for future care needs
    • Objective 2: Learn how to find and access community and personal resources
    • Objective 3: Understand and acknowledge the importance of self-care

    photo of presenter KC AusternKC Austern holds both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Social Work, and a Certification in Aging from Michigan State University, with a focus on social work in health care. She participated in MSU’s Health Education, Advocacy, Leadership Scholars program and completed the Social Work in Healthcare Certificate.

    KC has worked at the Tri-County Office on Aging for over 6 years, first in the Project Choices Waiver program and currently as an Options Counselor, supporting the aging community in long term care planning and resource managment. She is passionate about helping community members and families find ways to adapt to changes in health and ability, as well as ways to create communities that support health and healthful aging for all.

 

Other Staff/Employee Events and Resources

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  • Rest with Music

    • Location: Abrams Planetarium
    • Dates:
      • February 17: Songbird Filomena
      • March 17: Mark Collins
      • April 21: Folias Duo
      • May 19: Ellis & M.E.
      • June 16: The Rusty Snails
    • Time: 12:10-12:50 p.m.
    • Cost: FREE (no registration required)
    • Description: Each month, we'll be presenting different musical styles, genres, and traditions for you to enjoy. So, come to listen, relax, reflect, and rest with music. Music is powerful. It can heal. It can calm. It can change our mood and regenerate our body, mind and spirit. UHW invites you to take an hour out of your month to listen and simply 'rest with music.' Performances take place at Abrams Planetarium.


lines drawn to look like 2 Ws“We can build workplaces that are engines of well-being—showing workers that they matter, that their work matters, and that they have the support necessary to flourish. In doing so, we will foster more resilient, productive, and successful organizations and communities.”

- U.S. Surgeon General, Framework for Workplace Mental Health & Well-being