1. Professional Development

I received my Bachelor's degree in finance from Bentley University in 2003.  I moved through various roles in my first 5 years from finance to marketing to sports management before landing in the healthcare space.  After being in the industry for 7 years, I had an opportunity to join Provant, a corporate health and wellness solutions company and I jumped at it.  And I didn’t stop there.  Once a part of Provant, I have vested myself in becoming an industry expert in the field.  I am a board member of the Worksite Wellness Council of Massachusetts, member of WELCOA, SHRM, NEEBC and attend conferences and seminars to continuously to educate myself and be a valued and trusted consultant to my clients. 

2. Demonstrated Success

The privilege of being part of a comprehensive wellness solution provider is that we address such a wide range of issues and impact thousands of lives each day.  In my role, I have the opportunity to work with companies all across the country and of all different sizes.  It affords me the opportunity to have maximum impact.  In just 2 years at Provant, I have designed, strategized and implemented wellness programs that impact and touch over 150,000 people.  These programs take a proactive approach to address potential health related issues and provide resources/tools/support to people battling with existing health issues. 

A few particular programs stand out to me where we clearly made a major impact.  First, I had the opportunity to bring on board a University system.  It was a unique population of faculty, union and administration.  They needed a way to reach their employees to get them to engage where privacy had been a top concern.  I was able to structure a program that clearly communicated the “why” around the wellness program and the appropriate transparency in communication that ensured individuals privacy when participating.  After the first year they nearly doubled their participation in the program. 

Another client had an extremely dispersed population throughout the country.  They struggled with how to reach and engage their employees that were all remote.  I was able to work with this employer to implement a comprehensive program that put the focus on the employee first.  Based on their biometric screening results, we were able to provide dedicated coaching support to those that needed it most.  We gave them the tools they needed to make the needed changes to their health.  We also implemented a company wide challenge that got incredible participation.  The employees across the country could all engage as tracking was all done online.  At one of their annual summits in Indianapolis, there were people jokingly trying to steal the trophy of the winning unit.  It brought a positive energy to wellness and got people to engage because it was fun and just as a side effect, they were improving their health.

Those are just two of many situations where I’ve been able to work with companies to evaluate their specific needs and challenges to deliver an effective, comprehensive wellness strategy. 

3.  Leadership

As of January 2014, I was elected to the Board of Directors for the Worksite Wellness Council of Massachusetts.  As the Chair of the Annual Conference, I was tasked with delivering the councils one main yearly conference.  Working with my committee, we were able to deliver one of the best conferences since the councils inception and based on participant feedback, one of the best conferences in the space.  I was able to bring together the industries leading thought leaders in Dr. Isaac from Johnson & Johnson and Dr. Bradley from Safeway to provide keynote addresses.  The conference offered 6 breakout sessions that dove into the hot topics in wellness and closed with an employer panel made up of companies that have award winning wellness programs.  We had over 200 attendees at this event that took place this past September.  http://www.wwcma.org/?page=AnnualConf2014. 

4. Innovation

In my role at Provant I have the opportunity to drive change within our organization and how we deliver our wellness solutions to the market.  Being on the front lines, it’s allowed me to hear from the employers and their employees about what their needs and wants are.  In turn, I can drive those solutions internally at Provant.  I’ve championed a large product development piece around innovative corporate challenges that will be released for 1/1/2015.  I’ve also had the opportunity to explore partnerships that make wellness more complete.  Outside of just screenings, health coaching, HRA’s it’s looking at the vending machines in offices, financial wellness, culture improvement initiatives, etc. 

5. Compelling Vision

I think the biggest threat or challenge the wellness industry faces over the next 5 years is over saturation.  Every day it seems more and more companies pop up claiming to have the next best thing in wellness.  Credibility is already in question and therefore when these unproven “next best things” fail, it makes it that much harder to get buy-in to the wellness programs.  My goal is to ensure Provant stands above the noise and continues to be recognized as the industry leading wellness provider with a 15 year history.  On top of that, through my associations and networks, it’s to educate, educate, educate.  As long as employers are in a position to make informed decisions, the wellness industry will continue to thrive in the future!