Professional Development:

Lisa received her Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Grace College.  Lisa will graduate from Liberty University in August of 2015 with a Master of Public Health with a concentration in health promotion.  Lisa is Welcoa certified in several areas and maintains Welcoa faculty status.  The most valuable certification has been the Welcoa certification of the 7 Benchmarks.  Lisa entered the field of health and wellness because of the desire to help others reach their fullest potential in all areas of their lives.

Demonstrated Success

I worked with state leaders in public health to implement a workplace cancer screening pilot program at Grace College.  The aim of the program was to increase participation in colorectal cancer screening. Welcoa’s 7 benchmarks were used to help develop the pilot program.  Grace captured and demonstrated CEO support.  In fact, the CEO discussed his own experience with screening during an all employee meeting in which several employees encouraged their coworkers to get screened.  A wellness committee helped develop wellness initiatives that included health risk assessments, biometric screenings, health coaching sessions, and small media educational presentations.  Grace collected data, created a work plan, and choose appropriate evidence based interventions.  Grace created a supportive environment.  One employee focus group participant reported, “The whole feeling that knowledge is power and empowering people to make better choices or make a choice at all to do something that maybe they wouldn’t have done before. It’s nice to kind of see that start to come to the forefront. It’s nice that we can have a conversation about it that we wouldn’t have had a couple of years ago.” Grace also evaluated outcomes of the program.  Grace employees’ self-reported confidence in knowledge about colorectal cancer screening recommendations increased from 32 percent to 51 percent (target: 50 percent), according to the Cancer Screening Assessment.  Attitudes toward cancer screening improved, on average, 7.7 percent from baseline to follow up, and perceived barriers to screening improved, on average, 7.0 percent, according to the Cancer Screening Assessment. Early indications suggest that participation in colorectal cancer screening among Grace employees is increasing. There was a slight increase in the percentage of individuals on Grace’s employer-provided insurance who participated in at least one colorectal cancer screening test between July-December 2012 and July-December 2013. The percentage increased from 9.1 percent in 2012 to 12.5 percent during the same date range in 2013. Additionally, while 60 percent of survey respondents in the target age range said they plan to participate in colorectal cancer screening, 83 percent of follow up survey respondents indicated so in the Cancer Screening Assessment.

Leadership

I walk the talk by participating in any and all health programming activities that I lead at Grace including interventions in the areas of nutrition, physical fitness, exercise, financial wellness, cancer screenings, health risk assessments, biometric screenings, and health coaching sessions.   I also serve on local health promotion boards including Kosciusko Tobacco Free and the Wellness Committee of the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce.  I take advantage of local, state, and national resources that are made available to health and wellness practitioners.  My advice to other practioners is simply to become involved in health promotion activities outside of their own organization.  It is imperative to learn from one another and incorporate best practices into our own programming.

Innovation

I believe that I have demonstrated innovation by partnering with community and government organizations such as the Indiana State Department of Health and the local Chamber of Commerce.  Most employers do not take advantage of resources that might already be available to them including expert information about evidence based interventions developed by the CDC and other public health organizations.

Compelling Vision

I believe the opportunities for the health promotion industry will continue to expand over the next several years as employers search for new and innovative ways to improve employee health, wellness, and engagement in order to impact the bottom line.  I also believe that employers will demand more transparency in the area of return on investment for health promotion dollars. 

In the next five years, I plan to bring academia, employers, and local organizations together to partner in the area of participatory research and programming in ways that will transform the culture of health in my community.