Professional Development
Julie earned a MS in Communication and Organizational Leadership and has a B.S. Exercise Science and a B.A. Psychology. Julie is certified by the Chapman Institute as a CWPM (most valuable training to date) and the Cooper Institute for health promotion and health coaching. She is a member of WELCOA and attends National Conferences (AJHP, HBG). She has worked in wellness in the WNY for 10+ years. Under her leadership, Lawley was recognized as WNY Healthiest Employer (2011-2013), Wealth of Health Award (2011-2013), and AHA Fit Friendly Company (2013). Many of her clients have been recognized for these awards under her guidance for wellness programming. Julie joined the field to help others improve quality of life among organizations in WNY.

Demonstrated Success

Our most successful program addresses preventive health and includes comprehensive screenings, risk assessment and follow-up with the participants PCP. The goal of the program is to offer a convenient and cost-free opportunity to associates to identify their personal health risks. With an incentive applied, this program catches individuals who have not been to a physician to help them better understand their risks with the goal to identify “ticking time bombs” so that they become aware and develop a plan of action with their physician.  It incentivizes the healthy individuals who participate in screenings and follow up with their physician and as the program matures for their health measures. Lawley and our clients use this foundation for their health management programs. These programs have helped identify beginning stages of cancer, severe blood disorders and chronic diseases among participants who were unaware of their risks. Over time, risks among repeat participants are reduced. With on-site environmental and physical programming coordinated during the year, the culture shifts at an organization to be more supportive for employee health. This is all possible with CEO Support for engagement and budgeting, Wellness Committees, Appropriate Interventions based on identified risks and annual evaluation of programs. In the example of Lawley, comprehensive program stated in 2010 and included the comprehensive screening, risk assessment, PCP form and quarterly programs. Participants were given $100 cash to participate in the screening.   As the program matured over time, we started designing quarterly programs based on need identified from the screening results.  Working with senior leadership for their buy in and support, we created a wellness committee and a brand (LawleyStrong). Then working as a team under their advisement as to how to engage associates, I developed a nutrition program, blood pressure program, walking challenge, summer Olympics activity challenge, etc.  We also brought in healthy vending machines, offer annual flu clinics and implemented a smoking cessation policy. Over time, our incentives changed from cash, to PTO to HSA contribution. Now our incentive is given based on meeting health metrics or completing an alternative qualification and we are seeing good results based on the strategic design. We have achieved 75% engagement among our associates and see improvements in blood pressure (1%), nutrition (7%) and exercise behaviors (4%), reduction in smoking (2.7%) and stress (1%), all of which fall below the national benchmark established by our wellness vendor. We have an established culture of health at Lawley. It’s been part of our organizational scorecard; it’s brought up in organizational meetings and during recruitment. We have also achieved recognition and awards for our program including WNY Healthiest Employer (2011-2013), Wealth of Health Award (2011-2013), and AHA Fit Friendly Company (2013). We are successful because of our leadership, associates and that we evaluate our programs annually and made modifications as needed to continue building engagement and establishing a culture of health at Lawley and among our clients.

Leadership

I am proud of the healthy lifestyle that I live. I enjoy getting my activity by walking with my husband Mike, new daughter Emily and dog Gus. I am an avid hiker, skier, and kayaker and enjoy snowshoeing. I take an active vacation the ADK Mountains annually. I eat very healthy and enjoy sharing recipes with my friends and coworkers.  I share my knowledge with others through mentoring and internship opportunities. I mentor my team and am their advocate for training and professional growth. I meet with students entering the field to coach them and connect them to opportunities to expand their resumes.  Leadership I’ve gained is through my educational background, experience, networking and modeling from leaders I have reported to throughout my career. It’s an ongoing process to continually develop.  I would advise others to network find a mentor and try to gain as much experience to diversify knowledge to be known as a leader in wellness.

Innovation

I contribute to industry advancement by being creative to keep organizations engaged in programs. To generate engagement it’s important to learn what motivates employees. I helped an organization offer healthy vending options and incented participants by contributing to their holiday party fund every time a healthy choice was made. This doubled the amount the company contributed. I found with another employer found that TV raffle was more motivating than gift cards for their annual wellness fair, attendance is up 150%.  Lawley gave PTO in addition to our incentive if our organization met 75% engagement and it worked. Another organization is raffling off 3 months of free health insurance to increase engagement. A client gave cash and PTO for a program that increased engagement and lost 3.87% body weight. Additionally, my maters research focused on healthy literacy and its effect on worksite wellness program engagement.

Compelling Vision

With rising healthcare costs, our field has tremendous opportunity for organizations to impact health and improve bottom-line health plan spending.  New policies and laws for healthier living are emerging. I anticipate that more states will invest in public health programming. The challenge we all face is the amount of money spent on unhealthy marketing. The future is in the government providing tax breaks and grants for healthier organizations to keep their operating and product costs down.

Over the next 5 years, I plan to continue building my knowledge based on best practice and innovative research. I will continue to mentor and guide new professionals so that our field is sustainable. From a worksite wellness standpoint, I hope to establish a WELCOA chapter locally to give WNY professionals an opportunity to network, discuss research and build a bigger presence in our area.