UBC Wellbeing

Contact & Support

To be a global leader in championing wellbeing for our faculty, staff, students, and community members, we must work together, embracing wellbeing in our campus culture, promoting and supporting wellbeing in both large and small ways, and helping one another address challenges.


It is this strategic, collaborative, system-wide approach that defines UBC’s approach to wellbeing. It is not the effort of a single unit or department, but something we create collectively, with everyone contributing to making UBC a better place to live, work, learn and play.

UBC Wellbeing Executive Leadership Team

The UBC Wellbeing Executive Leadership Team provides oversight and decision-making support to ensure that UBC moves toward becoming a wellbeing-promoting university, embedding health and wellbeing in all that we do: into everyday operations, business practices, and academic mandates.

Executive Leadership Team
  • Simon Bates, Associate Provost, Teaching and Learning
  • Gord Binsted, Dean, Faculty of Health and Social Development, UBC Okanagan 

  • Deborah Buszard | Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Okanagan Campus
  • Matt Dolf, Director, Strategic Support, UBC Wellbeing 

  • Barbara Meens Thistle, Vice-President, Human Resources 

  • Andrew Parr, Acting Vice-President, Students

UBC Wellbeing Advisory Committee

The Wellbeing Advisory Committee is made up of a dedicated group of academic leaders, senior administrators, and student executives on both our Vancouver and Okanagan campuses. They represent leadership across portfolios at UBC and are a driving force in supporting wellbeing as a priority on our campuses, addressing why wellbeing matters, and recognizing how it can be better integrated into the strategic, academic, and operational work of the university. The Advisory Committee typically meets quarterly.

Advisory Committee Members 

 

— Chaired by members of the UBC Wellbeing Executive Leadership Team

  • Michelle Berner | Managing Director, Total Compensation | Human Resources | Vancouver campus
  • Joan Bottorff | Professor & Director | Institute for Healthy Living & Chronic Disease Prevention | Okanagan campus
  • Ian Cull | Associate Vice-President, Students | Okanagan campus
  • Eric Eich | Vice-Provost and Associate Vice President, Academic Affairs | Vancouver campus
  • Gillian Henderson | Director, Human Resources | Okanagan campus
  • Max Holmes | VP Academic & University Affairs | Alma Mater Society| Vancouver campus
  • Sara-Jane Finlay | Associate Vice-President, Equity and Inclusion| Vancouver campus
  • Carole Jolly | Director, Community Development | Campus & Community Planning | Vancouver campus
  • Shelley Kayfish | Director, Campus Operations and Risk Management | Okanagan campus
  • Debra Martel | Associate Director | First Nations House of Learning | Vancouver campus
  • Nick Pang | Pharmacy Student Senator & Co-Chair | Student Senate Caucus | Vancouver campus
  • Pouya Rezaeinia | Vice-President, Students | Graduate Student Society| Vancouver campus
  • Heather Robertson | Executive Director, Student Health & Wellbeing | Student Development & Services
  • James Tansey | Associate Professor and Director | UBC Sustainability Initiative| Vancouver campus
  • Janet Teasdale | Managing Director, Student Development & Services | Vancouver campus
  • Kavie Toor | Director, Facilities & Business Development | UBC Athletics & Recreation | Vancouver campus

Strategic Support Team

Under the guidance of the Wellbeing Advisory Committee, a Strategic Support Team of staff from key wellbeing supporting units on both campuses works with faculties, units and departments to integrate wellbeing into their practices, policies and unit cultures. Supports for wellbeing include:

  • Assisting with strategic planning; 
  • Communications and engagement; 
  • Planning and evaluation; 
  • Facilitation and connections; 
  • Bridging research and practice.
Strategic Support Team Members 
  • Matt Dolf, Director, Strategic Support, UBC Wellbeing
  • Patty Hambler, Director, Health Promotion & Education, Student Development & Services
  • Natasha Malloff, Director, Health, Wellbeing and Benefits, Human Resources
  • Melissa Baker, Manager, Nutrition and Wellbeing, Student Housing and Hospitality Services 
  • Carleigh Benoit, Manager, Work Re-Integration, Accommodation Program, UBC Okanagan
  • Lyz Gilgunn, Physical Activity Manager, Athletics and Recreation
  • Crystal Hutchinson, Workplace Wellbeing Strategist, Human Resources (on maternity leave)
  • Natasha Moore, Planning & Evaluation Advisor, UBC Wellbeing 
  • Gabby Scali, Content and Engagement Strategist, UBC Wellbeing
  • Karen Selby, Planning & Evaluation Advisor, UBC Wellbeing
  • Roger Wilson, Director, Health & Wellness, UBC Okanagan

Committees

Comprised of student, faculty, staff, and community stakeholders from both campuses, committees support our Wellbeing Priority Areas. Each committee develops a "Framework for Action" to help guide goal setting and facilitate cross-cutting initiatives in each area.

For “Built & Natural Environments” and “Social Connection,” efforts are already underway within key supporting units, and the need to create a separate committee is currently under review.

For more information on committee membership and initiatives, visit the priority area pages:

Join the Conversation! 

Interested in learning more about championing and supporting wellbeing in your department or faculty?

Resources to Support your Wellbeing 

UBC offers a number of resources and services to support your own wellbeing, including counselling, benefits information and health and wellness programs.  

For Students
For Faculty and Staff
For UNA Community Members
For Indigenous Community Members

Tools for Integrating Wellbeing

If you are looking for tools and resources to help better integrate wellbeing into your teaching, learning or workplace environment, please visit the Tools and Resources section for a variety of communication resources, workshops and classroom supports.

Sign up for Wellbeing News

The bi-monthly Wellbeing Round-up email contains wellbeing-related news from across our campuses. Contact gabriella.scali@ubc.ca to sign up.

 

UBC Wellbeing Annual Status Report 

Check out the work happening across our campuses to support faculty, staff and student wellbeing. 

 

We all have a hand in shaping campus environments that support health, wellbeing, and sustainability. By championing wellbeing, we can build stronger and more inclusive communities at UBC and beyond.