Health and wellness is more than just a trendy catchphrase.
As global citizens, we have become mindful of the vital significance of supporting one another in every health-driven way in our communities – across the world, within our nation, throughout our cities and local neighbourhoods, and in our schools and places of work. The more opportunity to address and embrace personal health + wellness, the greater our capacity to soar as human beings.
Health + wellness is about living with vitality. It is not just the absence of illness or freedom from disease. It is as much about our physical wellbeing as it is about our mental, emotional, spiritual and even financial health. It is about finding balance in our lives – at work and at play. Health + wellness is a state of optimal physical and mental health, where we have the freedom to make choices that best suit our lifestyles. It is ultimately about experiencing more joy, while leading productive and active lives.
KPU would like to support you to think and do more about your overall wellness. We believe the more we engage with one another about wellness, the better we are as individuals working and going to school in our community.
Let’s all do what we can to enjoy a better life!
What is the Healthy University Initiative?
KPU’s Academic Plan 2027 commits to a healthy and positive working and learning environment. Specifically, a key priority for KPU is to create a campus culture that fosters health and wellbeing by embedding health promotion into programs, practices and polices across our interconnected community of students, staff and faculty.
The Healthy University Initiative (HUI) embodies the comprehensive health strategy that will bring this priority to action, while focusing on the following 3 key goals:
Increase health awareness throughout the KPU community
Build individual and organizational resilience
Develop a supportive, inclusive campus
*Organizational resilience is the ability of the organization to bounce back from difficult experiences.
With these goals at the forefront of HUI, two working groups have been established: Student Working Group, and Employee Working Group. These groups have been tasked with developing and implementing a health and wellness action plan under the Healthy University Framework, our guiding foundation that pledges to:
- Build on strengths and revise approaches over time;
- Adopt a comprehensive, campus-wide participatory approach;
- Review and revise institutional structure: organization, planning and policy;
- Support the understanding of self-management competencies and coping skills; and
- Use evidence-informed action and innovation strategies.
Defining health is a personal matter. As such, KPU has decided to adopt the following World Health Organization’s widely-accepted definitions as a starting point for launching its Healthy University Initiative:
Health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
Mental health is “a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.”
Health and Wellness Committee
- Josh Mitchell, AVP, Student Affairs – Co-Chair
- Heba Elsonbaty, Interim AVP, HR – Co-Chair
- Andhra Goundrey, Dean, Faculty of Design
- Adrienne MacRitchie, Manager, Health and Wellness
- Shalini Vanan, Director, Student Wellness
- Leeann Waddington, AVP, Teach & Learning
(This group will expand its membership and be a fully formed committee by Fall 2026)
The development of a Health and Wellness report that identifies opportunities to update and strengthen the current KPU health and wellness framework (The Health University Initiative) was completed in April of 2025. The recommendations laid out in this report will serve to guide the evolution of the Health University Initiative and guide KPU’s vision of embedding wellbeing across the institution.
Six Dimensions of Wellness
To ensure personal and educational success, KPU’s health + wellness initiatives will focus on six dimensions of health. The following six dimensions of health have been selected as a broad and reasonable starting point for KPU. Note that we are not limited to these six dimensions in our work going forward.
Emotional Wellness
Beyond the ability to handle stress, Emotional Wellness embodies an optimistic approach to life, including an awareness and acceptance of your thoughts, feelings and behaviours, whether positive or negative.
Financial Wellness
Achieving a level of understanding and comfort with managing your financial situation – where your money comes from and where it is going – is key to realizing Financial Wellness.
Physical Wellness
Paying attention to and nurturing your body with mindful movement and nourishment is paramount to Physical Wellness.
Social Wellness
Social Wellness embraces the concept of meaningful relationships - respecting yourself and others, and creating a support system of valued family members and friends.
Spiritual Wellness
The Spiritual Wellness dimension seeks meaning and purpose in human existence, and encompasses a deep appreciation for the depth and expanse of life and the natural forces within the Universe that connect us all.
Mental Wellness
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines mental health as “a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.”