Andreea Baker, director of health and wellness at Doane, recently shared her expertise as a healthcare leader at four different universities across Japan.
As president-elect for the American College Health Association, Baker was invited to attend and present at the Japanese University Health Association’s annual conference in September. She visited and connected with colleagues at Gifu University, Ritsumeikan University, University of Tokyo and Fukushima University.
Baker said many of the attendees were nurses, physicians, counselors and other healthcare professionals who worked at small universities like Doane. During her presentation, titled “Supporting Student Success: How College Health Professionals Can Promote Wellness Beyond Borders” she shared examples of how she and her staff help students cope and work through common stressors. During her research for the presentation, Baker learned that students face similar challenges, despite living in different countries.
“I wanted attendees to be able to take some ideas back to their campuses and to their administrators to continue to advance the work that they are doing at their institutions,” Baker said.
Like, for example, how the Health and Wellness Center at Doane regularly collaborates with other departments. Before leaving for Japan, Baker and Darcy Dawson, director of counseling services, coordinated with the Student Wellness Action Team to speak to the football team about mental health and suicide awareness.
Since returning to Doane from her two-week excursion, Baker plans to embrace collaboration even more.
“I feel like we do a really great job of collaborating amongst the Student Affairs Division,” Baker said. “But I think this is a good opportunity for our departments, especially health and wellness, to reach out to faculty to see how we can support their work and ultimately our students.”
