Health and Wellness Symposium: Thriving Together

10-10:50 a.m.

The Power of Focusing

Anna-Katharina Lenz

The Power of Focusing introduces participants to Eugene Gendlin’s evidence-based method for accessing inner clarity through the body’s felt sense. Unlike traditional cognitive approaches that emphasize analysis, Focusing teaches individuals to listen to a subtle, whole-bodied sense of a situation, an intuitive, preverbal knowing that carries meaning and guides forward movement. This workshop offers a practical, experiential introduction to this method, highlighting how embodied awareness can enhance emotional resilience, reduce overwhelm, and support healthier decision-making.

Participants will begin with a brief grounding practice to attune to the present moment before being guided to notice a felt sense related to a current situation or concern. Through a sequence of gentle invitations, they learn how to form a “handle,” a word, image, or phrase, that captures their internal experience and to check it against their body's response. This process helps translate inner complexity into clearer, more actionable insight.

Through paired micropractice, attendees experience the relational dimension of Focusing, which emphasizes curiosity, self-compassion, and creating an inner environment of safety. We conclude by exploring applications to academic stress, workplace demands, and interpersonal communication. 

Location: Armstrong 1066

Serotype-Specific Impact of DENV NS1 on Endothelial Cell Dysfunction

Gejla Toromani

Dengue virus (DENV) infection remains a major public health burden worldwide, and severe disease is driven largely by vascular leakage caused by the viral nonstructural protein 1 (NS1). Although NS1 is known to disrupt endothelial barrier integrity and induce hyperpermeability, the pathways governing its entry into endothelial cells and the relationship between its intracellular trafficking and pathogenic effects remain poorly defined. Recent studies suggest that NS1 engages multiple cell-surface receptors and that its internalization route may influence downstream signaling events, including ER stress and inflammasome activation. However, how these processes differ across DENV serotypes is still unknown.

This project investigates the hypothesis that NS1 entry mechanisms and their consequences on endothelial function are serotype-dependent. Using purified NS1 from DEN-1 and DEN-2, we examine two major outcomes: VE-cadherin stability at adherens junctions and YAP1 localization as a marker of mechanotransduction and endothelial stress. We further evaluate whether serotype-specific differences in NS1-induced junctional disruption correspond to distinct internalization routes into endothelial cells. By integrating live-cell imaging, biochemical assays, and trafficking markers, this work will map the spatial and temporal dynamics of NS1 movement within endothelial cells and determine how its subcellular routing contributes to barrier dysfunction.

Understanding these mechanisms is vital, as NS1 is a major determinant of dengue severity and represents a promising therapeutic target. Identifying serotype-specific differences in NS1 uptake and action will not only clarify essential aspects of dengue pathogenesis but may also reveal new intervention points to block NS1-mediated vascular leak. This research provides mechanistic insight into how NS1 compromises endothelial stability and advances the development of targeted strategies to reduce severe dengue outcomes. 

Location: Armstrong 1080

Implementation of a Standardized Menopause Curriculum in Rural Midwestern Communities

Tanaya Bhatkar

The Menopause Curriculum, developed as part of a senior project, provides an introduction to menopause, outlines warning signs across all stages, and offers guidance for partners and allies on supporting those experiencing menopause.

Location: Armstrong 1082

Rethinking the Commute: How Active and Assistive Transportation Improve Cardiometabolic Health

Kyle Timmerman, Helaine Alessio, Paul Reidy

Modern mobility technologies have reshaped physical activity patterns, sometimes increasing sedentary behavior while contributing to higher motor-vehicle emissions. This session examines how active and assistive transportation modalities like cycling, e-biking, and scootering can improve cardiometabolic health and reduce environmental impact. Evidence-based strategies for encouraging broader adoption of these transportation choices will also be discussed.

Location: Armstrong 1086

11-11:50 a.m.

Cultivating Wellbeing: Mindfulness and Intention-Setting for Faculty Who Do It All

Naaborle Sackeyfio

This interactive workshop for faculty will explore the following questions: What would it look like to seed the power of intention to nurture, reset and recharge our body, mind, and energy as academics "doing it all?" This interactive workshop will explore how to cultivate balance between "being and doing" by drawing on key wellness modalities that include mindfulness, restorative tools for self and community care, gentle movement, and a soundscape experience.

Location: Armstrong 1066

Physical Inactivity-Induced Vascular and Metabolic Dysfunction

Kevin Ballard, Isaiah Stokes

Physical inactivity (PI) is prevalent in modern society and is associated with numerous adverse health outcomes, including increased risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and premature mortality. Clinical studies show that short-term PI (for example, reduced daily steps; bouts of prolonged sitting) impairs vascular and metabolic function, contributing to increased cardiometabolic disease risk.

This presentation will (1) describe methods commonly used to evaluate vascular and metabolic function in humans and (2) highlight recent scientific evidence (including completed and ongoing studies conducted at Miami University) examining the impact of PI on vascular and metabolic function.

Location: Armstrong 1080

The Employee Assistance Plan: A Critical Resource for Well-Being

Natalie Skoumbros

Please join us for a special session to learn about our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) through AllOne Health. While many know the EAP for counseling, it is actually a comprehensive "life hack" resource designed to make your daily life easier and less stressful.

What to expect: Natalie Skoumbros, director of benefits, will be taking a deep dive into this valuable resource. You’ll learn exactly how to access these perks and, more importantly, why you should be using them today!

It’s more than just counseling - This exciting resource offers a wide range of benefits for you and your household, including professional growth, personal support, financial tools, and access to everyday savings.

We hope to see you there!

Location: Armstrong 1082

The Bare Necessities: Helping Young People Reclaim Their Wellbeing

Jay Kimiecik

Today’s youth, from early childhood through young adulthood, are experiencing crisis levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness. The data seem surreal, yet are very real. What has happened? As a longtime well-being researcher/teacher/writer, I suggest young people are missing out on the natural human development triad of play, expressive self, and feeling free (the bare necessities) needed to optimize their well-being across the lifespan. This unfortunate trend in child development has many young people experiencing inner restriction, an overwhelming sense of being constrained by social, academic, and physical pressures. A sense of well-being is difficult to experience within these conditions.

With lecture and interactive activities, this session introduces and explains the essentials of the triad, play, expressive self, and experienced freedom, for helping young people reclaim their well-being.

Location: Armstrong 1086

2:30-3:20 p.m.

Just Breathe: Using the Breath to Enhance Emotional Well-Being and Mindfulness

Terri L. Messman, Ph.D.

The breath is a pathway to the stress response system. With each breath, there is an opportunity for safety and connection. In this interactive workshop, Dr. Messman will discuss how our breath is related to our stress response and activation of the two branches of the autonomic nervous system. Normal responses to threat and stress include the fight response (for example, irritability, defensiveness, loss of temper), the flight response (for example, avoidance, anxiety, and fear), and the freeze response (for example, numbing, detachment, giving up easily). Participants will learn the scientific basis of the fight-flight-freeze response in animal models and humans, and how dysregulated arousal is experienced and expressed. This workshop will introduce participants to a theoretical understanding of the multiple systems that evolved in relation to our experiences of stress, anxiety, and connection.

Workshop attendees will learn strategies to use the breath to shift their energy and emotional states through controlled breathing exercises. The workshop will introduce how breathwork bridges into mindfulness and meditation practice through mechanisms such as attention regulation, body (interoceptive) awareness, self-compassion and radical acceptance. This workshop will be both didactic and experiential. Breathing exercises will be introduced and practiced. A brief, breath-focused meditation will also be introduced. Workshop attendees are encouraged, but not required, to participate.

About the Presenter: Dr. Messman has been a professor of psychology at Miami University for over 25 years. She is a licensed psychologist in Ohio, a trained Kundalini yoga instructor, and presents workshops for clinical professionals on how to integrate mindfulness into psychotherapy for trauma survivors. She is the co-author, with Dr. Noga Zerubavel, of Integrating Mindfulness into Psychotherapy for Trauma: A Clinician’s Guide to Using Mindfulness Processes to Facilitate Healing and Reduce Suffering published by New Harbinger Press.

Location: Armstrong 1066

Designing Mental Health Interventions for Diverse Resettled Communities in Ohio

Saruna Ghimire

Location: Armstrong 1080

Exploring the Intersection of Loneliness and Belonging

Brandy Reeves-Doyle, Karly Geller, Paul Branscum

Loneliness is the subjective sense of feeling connected to others (Mellor et al., 2008). For college students, belonging refers to how much they feel supported on campus, how connected they feel to other students, and their institution, and their other feelings such as whether their institution cares for them or not (Counts and John-Henderson, 2020).

Inadequacies in the sense of belonging on campus, coupled with the subjective feeling of isolation, may heighten the likelihood of poorer mental health outcomes, academic engagement, and overall well-being. Often, loneliness and belonging have been studied as independent constructs that are inversely related - as one goes up (for example, a student feels higher levels of loneliness), the other tends to go down (for example, the same student feels lower levels of belonging) (Perlman & Peplal, 1981). Lim et al. (2021) hypothesized that loneliness and belonging are independent yet related constructs, and that loneliness and belonging could be experienced together.

The authors proposed a dual continuum for loneliness and belonging in four categories: socially fulfilled (low loneliness/high belonging), socially searching (high loneliness/high belonging), socially indifferent (low loneliness/low belonging), and socially distressed (high loneliness/low belonging) (Lim et al., 2021). While this has been examined among children (Kim and Choe, 2023) and adolescents (Grigorian et al., 2024), this has yet to be studied among college students in the United States. Therefore, the purpose of this presentation is to explore the dual continuum of loneliness and belonging.

The presenters will describe validated loneliness and belongingness measures used among college students and share results from a recent National College Health Assessment. The presenters will also share best practices for improving loneliness and belonging among college students.

Location: Armstrong 1082

Weaving Wellness: Creative Making as a Path to Campus-Wide Mental Health

Megan Jaskowiak, Sarah Nagle, Stefanie Hilles

The pressures of life in higher education can be a significant source of mental distress for individuals at all levels, from students to faculty and staff. Recent findings revealed comparable stress levels across all campus roles (Meeks, Peaks, and Dreihaus, 2023). This reality underscores the necessity for offering programs that support mental well-being for all campus communities.

Libraries are uniquely positioned to address this campus-wide need. As central, accessible spaces within academic institutions, they can transform into wellness hubs that provide relief from institutional pressures. Libraries are already deeply embedded in providing student success and community programming on college campuses. Some academic libraries have found success in improving staff wellness and morale by incorporating collaborative, creative activities into staff work time (Howes, Nunn, and Smoot, 2024), and a good deal of research shows that the wellness benefits of making and creating extend to everyone. Research confirms that creative-making activities effectively alleviate workplace stress and strengthen interpersonal bonds through shared creation experiences (Hansson and von Bush, 2022).

This hands-on session will be led by three librarians who discovered that crafting together offered both personal stress management and unexpected professional collaborations. Their experience inspired explorations of creativity's role in fostering resilience, mutual understanding, and psychological wellness within library settings. Participants in the workshop will engage in a textile weaving project designed to promote community building while mitigating stress. This hands-on and meditative activity allows attendees to experience firsthand the benefits of creative engagement in reducing stress and fostering connections among various roles and departments on campus.

Location: Armstrong 1086

3:30-4:20 p.m.

Explore Your Creativity with Opening Minds through Art (OMA)

Meghan Brady, Grace Sheridan, Makayla Burton

Developed in 2007 at Miami University’s Scripps Gerontology Center, Opening Minds through Art (OMA) is an award-winning, intergenerational art program originally designed for individuals living with dementia. Grounded in person-centered engagement, OMA uses simple, process-focused art projects that ensure enjoyment and success for both participants and the volunteers who support them. The program has proven valuable for students, staff, and faculty seeking meaningful ways to support connection and well-being for themselves and others.

Art-making is more than a creative pastime. Research shows it can reduce stress, enhance emotional regulation, and promote mindfulness. OMA embraces process art and draws on abstract art as inspiration, encouraging individuals to set aside self-judgment and engage with intuitive decision-making. This immersive experience supports entry into a “flow” state that opens space for reflection, calm, and personal insight.

OMA’s interdisciplinary structure invites students from any major to participate, enriching understanding while fostering creativity and relationship-building. Several universities have integrated OMA into health-professional curricula, offering future doctors, nurses, and allied health practitioners hands-on experience with older adults. These encounters build empathy, communication skills, and deepen students’ awareness of person-centered care through simple art-making sessions. Recent pilot work with OMA At-Home further demonstrates the program’s accessibility and potential across a wide range of settings and populations.

This session will provide an overview of the OMA method, including the biopsychosocial benefits of art-making and the program’s community outreach in Oxford. Participants will also engage in a hands-on OMA activity, experiencing firsthand how simple creative expression can support wellness and foster meaningful human connection.

Location: Armstrong 1066

Therapy Dogs, Well-Being and More

Melanie Uy

Attendees will learn about working dog classifications, including therapy dogs, service animals, and emotional support animals. The presentation will also explore Miami University’s student counseling dog therapy program, its connection to well-being, and areas where the program continues to grow.

Attendees will have the opportunity to meet one or two current therapy dogs and their handlers.

Location: Armstrong 1080

The Power of Peer Health Education

Brandy Reeves-Doyle, Leslie Haxby-McNeill

Peer health education has been consistently shown to be an effective strategy for increasing student knowledge, shifting attitudes, and promoting healthier, safer behavior specifically around sexual health (Skelly et al., 2018; Wong et al., 2019), breast self-examination (Yurt, Saglam Aksut, and Kadioglu, 2019), alcohol use (White et al., 2009), unhealthy eating (White et al., 2009), and more.

This presentation will provide attendees with an overview of peer health education, including the research supporting peer health education, and best practices. Research on the effectiveness of peer education and the types of programming used will be discussed. Presenters will discuss their experiences with advising peer health education teams, and share insights from Miami University’s award-winning peer health education program, HAWKS Peer Health Educators.

In addition, attendees will view a brief video featuring current and past HAWKS discussing their experience in the program, how serving as a peer educator influenced their personal development, leadership skills and post-graduate paths, and the lasting impact of being part of a mission-driven health promotion team.

Location: Armstrong 1082

Understanding the Nervous System: A Polyvagal Theory Primer for Everyday Well-Being

Anna-Katharina Lenz

This presentation offers a clear and practical introduction to Polyvagal Theory, a neuroscience-based framework developed by Dr. Stephen Porges that explains how our autonomic nervous system shapes the way we feel, think, and relate to others. Drawing on my formal training through the Polyvagal Certificate Course, this session translates complex physiology into everyday language to help participants better understand their stress responses and emotional patterns.

The talk introduces the three core autonomic states—ventral vagal (safety and social engagement), sympathetic activation (fight-or-flight mobilization), and dorsal vagal (shutdown or overwhelm)—and explains how rapid, subconscious processes of neuroception influence which state we occupy. By recognizing these states as physiological responses rather than personal shortcomings, individuals can approach their inner experience with greater clarity and compassion.

The talk highlights how autonomic states affect learning, communication, decision-making, and interpersonal dynamics, offering insight into why we “lose access” to creativity or connection under stress. Participants will learn how cues of safety support emotional regulation and why mismatched states frequently lead to misunderstandings in classrooms, workplaces, and relationships.

A brief, optional demonstration illustrates how simple sensory-orienting practices can shift the nervous system toward greater stability. Attendees will leave with a foundational understanding of Polyvagal Theory and practical language for describing and supporting their own regulation.

Location: Armstrong 1086

4:30-5:30

Access In Motion: Making the Outdoors Accessible

Laurel Logemann, Alex Staltzer

Come engage in our presentation and workshop as we highlight some of the key aspects of Paws For A Cause's new fundraising initiative, Access In Motion: Making the Outdoors Accessible.

This session will begin with a brief presentation highlighting the importance of outdoor recreation access for all, and will follow with an interactive portion where participants will get to experience the challenges of navigating the outdoors as someone with a disability.

Location: Armstrong 1066

Art and Wellness: Therapeutic Drawing

Ari Glassberg, Kiera Lewis, Shr-Shiang Moore

Undergraduate art therapy students will share a brief presentation focusing on the key differences between therapeutic art and art therapy. We will discuss the importance of visual art as a therapeutic tool, which can help people regardless of their level of artistic experience. We will offer insight about our experience as leaders of Art and Wellness at Miami, a weekly program, which provides students with free therapeutic art activities, a variety of materials, and a safe space for creative expression.

Following the presentation, we will introduce and demonstrate a therapeutic art activity centered around practicing mindfulness and reducing stress. Materials including small sheets of paper, Micron pens, watercolor palettes, and paint brushes will be provided for attendees to complete their drawings once the demonstration has concluded. Time will be given to work on the drawings independently, and before our time is up, we will reconvene as a group to reflect on our art pieces.

The objective of this presentation is to give our audience an example of an activity that they can do to practice mindfulness on their own time, and to promote participation in the Art and Wellness program to students.

Location: Armstrong 1080

The student panel will talk about how they stay balanced while managing many priorities. They will have an honest conversation about balance and well-being, followed by a Q&A with Steve Large, assistant vice president of student health and wellness.

About the moderator:

Steve Large (moderator) has served as Miami University’s assistant vice president for student health and wellness since 2018. In this role, he provides leadership for Student Counseling Services, Student Health Services, and the Office of Student Wellness, with a focus on supporting student well-being through comprehensive, and student-centered care.

Prior to joining Miami, Steve spent nine years as the director of a combined health and counseling services department at Gannon University, and previously worked at the University of Dayton’s Counseling Center as a staff psychologist and coordinator of outreach.

Steve is a licensed clinical psychologist who earned his Bachelor of Science in Psychology from John Carroll University, and his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Wright State University. Outside of work, he enjoys real estate, the benefits of living in a small college town like Oxford, and spending time with his aggressively friendly dog, Joey.

About the panelist:

Arushi Agrawal is a junior from Dayton, Ohio, majoring in Spanish. She serves as a student trustee on the Board of Trustees, is a member of the Honors College, and is vice president of programming for PhiDE, Miami University’s premedical fraternity. She has also previously been involved in Residential Life as a resident assistant. Arushi has spent much of her time at Miami working to balance her various roles while also caring for her own well-being. As she prepares for medical school, she has been reflecting on how easy it is to lose that balance and how essential it is for sustaining meaningful growth and staying connected to others.

Rondale Carridine is a sophomore psychology and pre-med major from Colleyville, Texas. He is involved in Track and Field, PhiDE and Brother2Brother. Managing these responsibilities can be challenging, which is why he focuses on his emotional well-being. Without that focus, he believes none of his commitments would receive the best version of himself.

Abby Meister is from Hilliard, Ohio, and is a senior psychology major at Miami University. Throughout her time at Miami, she has been involved in Miami Hope, a campus mental health organization, where she currently serves as president. She also serves as a mental health peer educator with the Office of Student Wellness and as a social media associate for the Department of Student Life. She is a member of Miami’s Student Wellness Advisory Group, where she engages in conversations about well-being with her peers.

The topic of balance is important to her as someone deeply involved on campus, and she believes maintaining balance between classes and other responsibilities, while challenging, is essential to promoting emotional well-being among college students.

Peyton Morrow is a third-year biology and pre-med major from Wooster, Ohio. His campus involvement includes serving on advisory councils alongside the dean of University Libraries and the assistant vice president for student health and wellness. He also served as a student trustee on the Miami University Board of Trustees from 2024 to 2026 and is an active member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.

To Peyton, balance means setting and working toward ambitious goals without sacrificing personal well-being on a path to success that is rarely linear.