Director of Wellness to Improve Health of Campus

Two years ago, a number of staff and faculty met to consider an aspect of student success and retention that centered on the conversation of a healthy campus. Yet in some ways, the campus has been discussing health and wellness for many years. Students, staff, and faculty met in 2005 as a wellness committee and began a strategic plan to create a healthier campus.

Rollins is rededicating itself to a vision of a healthy campus. There are many offices and individuals committed to providing a healthy community on one or more of the six dimensions of wellness–physical, emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual, and environmental. The offices of health services, counseling and psychological services (CAPS), physical education and athletics, human resources, environmental studies, and the Dean of the Chapel are all involved with programming aimed at making Rollins a healthier campus.

To facilitate the efforts of our wellness initiative and to serve as a catalyst and coordinator for wellness, Joanne Vogel has agreed to accept additional responsibilities as the director of wellness. She has served as a faculty member in the counseling master’s program at Rollins and as an administrative faculty member in the counselor education program at the University of Central Florida.

For many years, Vogel had a private practice dedicated to counseling and consulting on a variety of issues including posttraumatic stress, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and sexual issues. She is a qualified sex therapist, certified hypnotherapist, and has experience working with children, adolescents, couples, groups, and families. She has published numerous articles in various professional journals and has co-authored a book on childhood fears, stress, and trauma.

Vogel will broaden the scope of the campus-wide R-Wellness Committee. She will provide leadership in transforming the health services at Rollins into a campus-wide wellness center, which will serve as a clinic for both medical and psychological issues while providing space for classes, workshops, lectures, and educational programming.

Healthy people need healthy communities to thrive, healthy communities need healthy people. We are very pleased and excited to reenergize our wellness initiative which further supports the Rollins mission: “We value excellence in teaching and rigorous, transformative education in a healthy, responsive, and inclusive environment.”

By Steve Neilson

Office of Marketing & Communications
For more information, contact news@rollins.edu