UAB President Ray Watts President Ray Watts is among senior leaders in higher education selected to present on ways in which campuses worldwide can mobilize to address complex issues during the International Health Promoting Campuses Symposium.
Learn more about UAB’s efforts to integrate health into all aspects of campus culture and lead health promotion action, as well as ways in which our international peers are responding to the same challenges during a free 45-minute webinar at 10 a.m. CDT May 12.
The webinar is for anyone interested in the advancement of health promotion, public health, well-being, equity, Indigenous rights and sustainability in campus settings. The panel, Wellbeing as a Priority: Presidents and Vice Chancellors in Conversation, will be conducted on Zoom. You can learn more and register for this event online.
“During the past several years it has become readily apparent how deeply health and well-being are embedded into all aspects of UAB’s campus culture,” Watts said. “I encourage the UAB community to participate in this event and consider how they can support our health-promoting initiatives on campus. I am proud of UAB’s systemwide commitment to well-being within our campus and beyond and the way this work — our work — represents our shared values in action.”
Joining Watts on this panel are Santa Ono, president of The University of British Columbia, and Pamela Gillies, principal and vice chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University. These institutions, like UAB, are signatories to the Okanagan Charter: An International Charter for Health Promoting Universities and Colleges.
“Here at UAB we have long understood that health is not merely the result of individual action but is created within the settings of an individual’s everyday life,” said Rebecca Kennedy, Ph.D., UAB assistant vice president for Student Health and Wellbeing, a member of the steering group for the International Health Promoting Universities and Colleges and chair of the US Health Promoting Campuses Network.
“This webinar is an opportunity for President Watts to share the many ways in which, under his leadership, UAB has taken a systems approach to improving the well-being of people, places and the planet.”
In December 2020, UAB became the first university in the United States to adopt the Okanagan Charter and become an internationally recognized Health Promoting University; seven others joined on Sept. 1, 2021.
