As you may have heard, Dr. Steven Noeldner has accepted a new role at HERO as Chair of the HERO Research Committee. David Anderson has been serving in the role for many years and as part of general succession planning at HERO, he requested last fall that HERO begin looking for someone he could pass the proverbial leadership torch to. After many months of careful pondering and discussion, HERO successfully recruited Steven to step into this leadership role. Steven has been leading the RSS as its Chair ever since the subcommittee was created and we are excited to leverage his considerable HERO and industry experience to take this broader role. Just in case you are not familiar with Steven’s impressive background, scroll down to the bottom of this message for more information about him.
You may also have heard that Jennifer Flynn has accepted a significant new opportunity with Johnson & Johnson and as a result has requested HERO seek a replacement for her leadership position on the RSS. The RSS has benefited greatly from Jennifer’s leadership over the past two years and we are sad for her to step down from her role within the RSS, as well as thrilled for the new opportunities she will have to bring her knowledge of HERO to a broader audience in her new role.
As a result of both of these transitions, we have been working to identify new leaders for the RSS. HERO launched a focused selection process based on several criteria: active involvement with the RSS; experience conducting research and disseminating study results; and application of research to practice. Based on these criteria, Kristi Rahrig Jenkins and Colleen Saringer have been selected to serve as the new RSS Co-Chairs. You may be well aware of their contributions to HERO, but not as familiar with their research background and interests, so we’re taking the opportunity to share some additional information about them below.
We will be working with Steven, Kristi and Colleen over the coming months to transition them into their new roles and they will formally begin their leadership this fall. Please join us in the meantime as we congratulate them and welcome them to their new leadership role at HERO.
BIOGRAPHIES
Steven Noeldner, PhD, MS
Steven is a senior consultant in Mercer’s Total Health Management specialty practice, where he works with organizations to develop well-being program and evaluation strategies that include the full continuum of well-being from promotion of physical, emotional, social and financial well-being, to support for disability and chronic conditions, to the delivery of health care through direct provider contracting (ACO). His health and well-being career has spanned over 25 years and includes experience as a hospital administrator, university instructor, well-being business owner, workplace well-being and benefits management, and senior executive. Steven has authored or co-authored a number of peer reviewed journal articles – including several HERO papers — and book chapters relating to health and well-being, as well as serving as a peer reviewer for several professional journals. Steven has been involved with HERO since 2006 and has contributed to HERO activities in a number of ways during that time, including as co-author of the HERO Health & Well-being Best Practices Scorecard in Collaboration with Mercer© (U.S. and International versions), author of several HERO Scorecard Commentaries, a collaborator on joint initiatives between HERO and other non-profit health and well-being organizations, and as the initial Chair of the RSS.
Kristi Rahrig Jenkins, PhD, MPH
Kristi is Research Program Manager for MHealthy, Health and Wellbeing Services, at University of Michigan and her professional experience includes over 13 years of experience as a researcher at a level R1 research university as well as several teaching roles at Wayne State University, University of Michigan, and Henry Ford Community College. It’s no wonder she’s so good at making complicated research studies so easy to understand! She has authored more than 20 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and recent studies focus on various aspects of health and well-being at the worksite. Kristi has contributed actively to the RSS through regular attendance at meetings, co-authorship of a peer-reviewed HERO article in AJHP on national research priorities, authorship of an industry research review article, and development of RSS standard procedures for involvement of the RSS in HERO research studies.
Colleen Saringer, PhD
Colleen is the lead Wellness Consultant for the Alliant Clinical and Wellness team. She has worked in the corporate wellness field for over 15 years, spending a majority of that time with the American Cancer Society before joining Alliant in 2012. Her research interests focus on behavior change in the workplace through physical activity policy and environmental strategies and her current role includes working with client teams in the design, implementation, performance, and evaluation of employer wellness programs. She also works with Alliant client teams to ensure company wellness programs are evidence-based and in line with industry best practices. Her contributions to the RSS includes regular attendance at meetings, authorship of several industry research review articles, and active contributions to several HERO study committees, where she provides research technical expertise and hands-on help developing study committee deliverables. She is also serving on the RSS workgroup that is providing oversight for a HERO study on incentives and health outcomes.