A search committee has started work to find Dartmouth’s first chief health and wellness officer.
President Sian Leah Beilock announced the national search in a message to the community earlier this month.
“The creation of a senior position reporting directly to the president reflects that the health and well-being—including mental health—of every member of the Dartmouth community is a top institutional priority,” says search committee co-chair Jomysha Delgado Stephen, executive vice president for strategy and special counsel to the president.
Search committee co-chair William Torrey, the Raymond Sobel Professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the Geisel School of Medicine, agrees.
“Finding the right person for this role is critical to advancing Dartmouth’s future as a thriving, healthy, and resilient academic community,” Torrey says.
The chief health and wellness officer will be a member of the president’s senior leadership team and will act as a key adviser on all health matters affecting students, faculty, and staff while overseeing the student-focused Dartmouth College Health Service, the Student Wellness Center, and Employee Wellness.
They will also hold a clinical appointment at Dartmouth Health, helping to strengthen the integration of services between Dartmouth and Dartmouth Health.
Among many responsibilities, the new position will collaborate with partners across the institution to create and deliver educational programming on health and wellness; analyze and interpret data related to outcomes; serve as an expert resource to the university community; establish health and wellness policies; and help ensure compliance with regulations and guidelines related to health and safety, from emergency preparedness to pandemic response.
The successful candidate will be a licensed physician with a record of leadership in developing and implementing health and wellness programs, preferably in an educational setting. They should have a strong understanding of mental health issues, wellness promotion, and preventative care.
The search for the new chief health and wellness officer comes as Dartmouth prepares to host a Sept. 28 meeting of current and former U.S. surgeons general on solutions to the national mental health crisis and to roll out a new strategic plan to address student mental health issues this fall.
In addition to Stephen and Torrey, members of the search committee for the health and wellness officer are Andrew Campbell, the Albert Bradley 1915 Third Century Professor of Computer Science; Matthew Duncan, assistant professor of psychiatry and medical education at Geisel; Mike Harrity, the Haldeman Family Director of Athletics and Recreation; Anne Hudak, associate dean of student support services; Sara Lester, chief human resources officer; and Janice McCabe, associate professor of sociology and house professor of Allen House.