History
It all started at dinner. What is now known as the Healthy Campus Initiative (HCI) emerged from conversations between UCLA administrators, faculty, donors, and foundation leaders. The vision and generosity of Jane and Terry Semel allowed the idea to become a reality. Professor Michael Goldstein from the Fielding School of Public Health was asked to take on the role of Associate Vice-Provost and also assembled a “sponsorship group” of campus leaders to discuss how the effort might be best organized. Live Well as it stands today is a result of these efforts.
Live Well Leadership
Dr. Wendy Slusser is Associate Vice Provost for the UCLA Healthy Campus Initiative and HS Clinical Professor of Pediatrics in the Schools of Medicine and Public Health at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Co-Founder and Medical Director of the UCLA Fit for Healthy Weight program.
She is currently the lead on the Healthy Campus Initiative and over the last two years led the nutrition pod for the Initiative. She is also the Principal Investigator on the Fit for LA Project that is focused on building the capacity of LAUSD school doctors, nurse practitioners and UCLA pediatric residents in the prevention and management of pediatric obesity; and the Prevention of Childhood Overweight through Parent Training Intervention Project focused on low-income preschool children and their parents. She completed the Fit for Residents Curriculum development and pilot testing project in collaboration with AAP and AAFP, and the evaluation of the Nutrition Network Los Angeles Unified School District Project. Previous research included positions as principal investigator on the Fruit and Vegetable Bar Intervention study to promote fruit and vegetable consumption among low-income elementary school children in LAUSD; and co-investigator on the development of the Nutrition Friendly School criteria a Community Based Participatory Research Project funded by the CDC.
Dr. Slusser is Board Certified in Pediatrics, a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and practices and for 19 years taught General Pediatrics and health promotion at the Venice Family Clinic. She was selected to be a member of the Institute of Medicine committee called Obesity Prevention Policies for Young Children. She is the 2010 recipient of the Robert F. Allen Symbol of H.O.P.E. (Helping Other People through Empowerment) Award presented annually by the American Journal of Health Promotion to an individual who makes an outstanding contribution to serving the health promotion needs of underserved populations or to promoting cultural diversity within health promotion.
Michael Ong, M.D., P.h.D.
Breathe Well Pod Leader
Michael K. Ong, M.D., Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine in Los Angeles, California and Chair of the Tobacco-Free Steering Committee. His research interests focus on improving the delivery of appropriate and efficient health care by general internal medicine physicians. His research has applied this focus in several areas of general medicine, including hospital-based care, mental health, and tobacco control. He is currently Chair of the State of California Tobacco Education and Research Oversight Committee, which oversees programs funded by Proposition 99 including the California Tobacco Control Program.
Amy Rowat, PhD
Eat Well Pod Leader
Amy Rowat is an Assistant Professor of Integrative Biology and Physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is also a member of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Broad Stem Cell Research Center, Bioengineering Department, Center for Biological Physics, and Business of Science Center. Rowat holds degrees from Mount Allison University (B.Sc. Honours Physics, 1998; B.A. Asian Studies, French, & Math, 1999), the Technical University of Denmark (M.Sc. Chemistry, 2000), and the University of Southern Denmark (Ph.D. Physics, 2005). She was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Physics/ Division of Engineering & Applied Science, Harvard University as well as Brigham Women’s Hospital/ Harvard Medical School. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, such as the prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER development award, and has authored over 40 peer-reviewed publications and 4 patents. In addition to her commitment to research, Rowat has also pioneered the use of examples from food and cooking as vehicles for teaching sophisticated physics concepts to a general audience. She is founder and director of Science & Food, an organization based at UCLA that promotes knowledge of science through food and food through science. Rowat is also the leader of the Food Pod of the UCLA Healthy Campus Initiative.
Angelia Leung, M.A., C.M.A.
Move Well Pod Leader
As faculty member in UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, Angelia Leung’s teaching areas include: improvisation, choreography, movement analysis, fundamentals and modern dance technique, dance education, and production management/administration. Leung has been an independent choreographer/dancer as well as one of the founders of Chopsticks & Sneakers, a collective of Asian and Asian-American choreographers, which has produced concerts since 1984. She has taught as guest artist wherever her works have been presented throughout the United States and internationally. Leung’s teaching and creative work reflects her primary interest in praxis – in creating bridges between intuition and the analytical, the theoretical and the practical, the conceptual and the physical. She served as Vice Chair in the Dance Studies and Undergraduate Studies areas of the Department of World Arts and Cultures for 6 terms. She has served as Co-Chair and now Chair since 2006.
As faculty member in UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, Angelia Leung’s teaching areas include: improvisation, choreography, movement analysis, fundamentals and modern dance technique, dance education, and production management/administration. Leung has been an independent choreographer/dancer as well as one of the founders of Chopsticks & Sneakers, a collective of Asian and Asian-American choreographers, which has produced concerts since 1984. She has taught as guest artist wherever her works have been presented throughout the United States and internationally. Leung’s teaching and creative work reflects her primary interest in praxis – in creating bridges between intuition and the analytical, the theoretical and the practical, the conceptual and the physical. She served as Vice Chair in the Dance Studies and Undergraduate Studies areas of the Department of World Arts and Cultures for 6 terms. She has served as Co-Chair and now Chair since 2006.
Michael Deluca, M.A.
Move Well Pod Leader
Michael (Mick) Deluca is the Assistant Vice Chancellor, Campus Life at UCLA where he has worked for the last 25 years. In this role Mick oversees a campus cluster to include campus student activities, student leadership programs, over 1000 student organizations, student event planning, community programs to include student initiated access, campus retention, and student initiated service projects, a wide variety of recreation programs and services including instructional programs, summer camps, youth and family programs, competitive and intramural sports, 54 club teams, outdoor adventures, fitness and wellness, cultural arts, adaptive sports, and open recreation, 22 recreational and multi-use sport facilities including the John Wooden Center and Pauley Pavilion, and event operation and management. In his time at UCLA, Mick has been in the role of Associate Director, and then Director, Department of Cultural and Recreational Affairs, and Executive Director, Recreation and Campus Life. Prior to working at UCLA, Mick also worked at the University of Wyoming and the University of Denver and received degrees from Colorado Mesa University and the University of Denver. He is also an active leader within the UC system and Pac 12 Conference and at the national level most recently serving on the NIRSA, Leaders in Collegiate Recreation, Board of Directors where he was the 2012-13 NIRSA President.
Robert M. Bilder, PhD, ABPP-CN
Mind Well Pod Leader
Dr. Bilder received a BA from Columbia College in Biology and Psychology (1978), and a Ph.D. in Psychology from City College, where he specialized in human neuropsychology (1984). He did his Internship in Neuropsychology at the New York State Neurological Institute (1982). Before joining UCLA in 2002, Dr. Bilder held faculty appointments at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He served as Chief of Neuropsychology at Zucker Hillside Hospital of North Shore Long Island Jewish Medical Center from 1988 to 2002, and Associate Director for Human Research at the Center for Advanced Brain Imaging at the Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research from 1996 to 2002.
Dr. Bilder is currently the Tennenbaum Family Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior, and Chief of Medical Psychology – Neuropsychology in the Geffen School of Medicine and the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital. A board-certified clinical neuropsychologist with decades of experience researching links between brain and behavior in health and disease, Dr. Bilder has long been interested in dimensional approaches to understanding mental health, and to erasing arbitrary boundaries between health and illness. He directed the Consortium for Neuropsychiatric Phenomics, which was supported by the NIH Roadmap Initiative to investigate cognitive phenotypes across multiple levels of analysis from genome to syndrome, and is now leading a related project under the aegis of the NIMH Research Domains Criteria (RDoC) initiative. Dr. Bilder heads UCLA’s Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity, studying creative cognition and exceptional abilities that may be important keys to achievement in diverse artistic, scientific, and business domains. As director of the Mind Well program in the UCLA Healthy Campus Initiative, he aims to help promote well-being and creative achievement throughout the UCLA campus community and beyond.
Richard Joseph Jackson, MD, MPH, FAAP, Hon ASLA, Hon AIA
BE Well Pod Co-Leader
Richard Jackson is a Professor at the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles. A pediatrician, he has served in many leadership positions in both environmental health and infectious disease with the California Health Department, including the highest as the State Health Officer. For nine years he was Director of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health in Atlanta and received the Presidential Distinguished Service award. In October, 2011 he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
While in California he was instrumental in conceptualizing laws to reduce risks from pesticides, especially to farm workers and to children. While at CDC he was a national and international leader, including leading the federal effort to “biomonitor” chemical levels in the US population. He has received the Breast Cancer Fund’s Hero Award, as well as Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Public Health Law Association, and the New Partners for Smart Growth. In October, 2012 he received the John Heinz Award for Leadership in the Environment.
Dick Jackson co-authored two Island Press Books: Urban Sprawl and Public Health in 2004 and Making Healthy Places in 2011. He is host of a 2012 public television series Designing Healthy Communities which links to the J Wiley & Sons book by the same name. He has served on many environmental and health boards, as well as the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects. He is an elected honorary member of both the American Institute of Architects and the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Renee Fortier, M.A./M.S.
BE Well Pod Co-Leader
Renée Fortier (B.A. Rice University; M.A./M.S. UCLA), Executive Director UCLA Events & Transportation, oversees both a comprehensive transportation program and the campus Events Office, and is co-chair of the Built Environment (BE Well) pod of the UCLA Healthy Campus Initiative. With a daily population of 70,000, UCLA reduces traffic, and improves air quality and quality of life for the UCLA campus and the community at large through an extensive sustainable transportation program, including public transit passes, bicycle programs, carpools, vanpools, shuttles, and a campus fleet which is 50% alternative fueled. UCLA’s transportation programs have garnered awards from the Air Quality Management District, Association for Commuter Transportation and L.A. Metro, as well as the Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award (GEELA), and have received a “Best Workplace for Commuters” – Gold designation and a “Bike Friendly University” – Silver designation.
Louise Ino
Executive assistant to Healthy Campus Initiative Associate Vice Provost Wendelin Slusser
Louise is the administrative coordinator for the HCI, working with all the wonderful students, staff and faculty who are involved in the many HCI projects on campus.
Tyler Watson
Food Security Working Group GSR
Tyler is a doctoral candidate in Environmental Health Sciences in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. He primarily works on research and programs to better understand and address food insecurity and ensure equitable access to healthy foods. He is a Global Food Initiative (GFI) Fellow and the graduate student researcher (GSR) for the UCLA Food Security Working Group, and works closely with the HCI EatWell pod on several food and nutrition efforts on and off campus. Previously, he was the GSR for the BEWell pod and worked on bicycle access and stairwell redesign at UCLA. Tyler received his BS in Biological Sciences from UC Santa Barbara and his MPH in Environmental Health Sciences from UCLA.
Artemisia Valeri
MindWell Coordinator
Artemisia graduated from New York University in 2015 with a degree in Applied Psychology and a minor in Italian. While at NYU, she worked as an advocate for girls in the juvenile justice system as part of a clinical research team using a strengths based promotion intervention model. Artemisia has also worked providing behavioral therapy to children with autism and in the nonprofit world promoting arts and wellbeing programming for youth. Artemisia hopes to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology.
Anika Akhter
Research Well GSR
Anika Akhter is a 2nd year MPH in Community Health Sciences student and the GSR for the ResearchWell Pod of the Healthy Campus Initiative. She became involved in HCI in fall 2015, drawn by the appeal of contributing to a multidisciplinary, campus-wide initiative that promotes the health of the UCLA community while also continuing to develop her evaluation skills. During the 2015-2016 academic year, she developed and pilot tested two data collection instruments: an intercept survey that HCI pods could use to obtain feedback from participants at events and programs they organized, and a process evaluation form that allows GSRs to reflect on what went well and what they would change when organizing similar events in the future. She continues to manage the collection of process evaluation data this year and communicates regularly with pod GSRs to identify opportunities to administer the intercept survey. Anika also helps support the other HCI pods and student groups funded by HCI with their research and evaluation needs.
What Does Live Well Mean for You?
The creation of the Healthy Campus Initiative indicates the determination of UCLA’s leadership to make health and wellness a core value of the institution. UCLA is a beautiful, complex, and highly diverse community— the elements of what is created here can be useful in building healthy communities beyond our own campus. But all of this begins with you!
Make a personal commitment to wellness, share your ideas, and get involved. Let’s Live Well, together.
