Ten years ago, the majority of colleges handled student wellbeing with little more than a few counseling offices, yoga mats, and a stress ball distribution in the middle of the semester. In order to address the student mental health epidemic with structure, permanency, and purpose, schools are now employing executive-level leaders, also referred to as wellness chiefs.
These positions are radically changing how universities promote students’ well-being by including mental health into the fundamental design of campus life.
Idealism wasn’t the only factor in the change. During the pandemic, organizations rushed to offer remote assistance, only to find that demand increased rather than decreased. In many instances, treatment appointment waitlists lengthened beyond what is usually seen during a semester. Emergency responses were commonplace. Advisors for academics also served as crisis counselors. It became very evident that health was now a structural requirement rather than an optional offering.
One of the first to be promoted to Chief Health Officer at the University of Southern California, Dr. Sarah Van Orman has a wellness portfolio that includes everything from crisis response and counseling to campus-wide preventative programs. In addition to managing crises, her office strategically designs wellbeing.
Other educational institutions followed. Associate Vice President for Student Well-Being Dr. Corrine Williams was appointed by the University of Kentucky. What was she supposed to do? Combine disparate mental health services and create what she refers to as a “culture of upstream care,” in which assistance is provided well in advance of collapse.
| Key Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Issue Addressed | Growing mental health crisis among college students |
| Institutional Response | Hiring of “Chief Wellness Officers” or “Wellness Chiefs” |
| Common Roles and Duties | Oversee campus mental health, coordinate resources, drive resilience efforts |
| First Movers | University of Southern California, University of Kentucky, NYU |
| Catalysts | COVID-19 aftermath, suicide rates, burnout, therapy demand surge |
| Goals | Normalize mental health, reduce stigma, build campus-wide well-being plans |
| Trends Observed | Shift from reactive to proactive wellness strategies |
| Long-Term Challenges | Budget pressures, administrative overlap, measuring effectiveness |
This change from reactive to proactive has been quite helpful. With the help of peer-led support groups, faculty training, updated curricula, and wellness-focused student policies, wellness chiefs are integrating mental health into everyday student life rather than considering it as something private, stigmatized, and clinical.
The wellness chief’s cross-departmental reach is what distinguishes their post from previous student assistance models. Counseling centers are not where these leaders are hidden away. Together with deans and provosts, they determine institutional priorities, advise presidents, and shape policy while seated at the decision-making table.
Wellness leadership at NYU assisted in redesigning first-year student onboarding to incorporate early mental health screening, resilience training, and workshops on coping strategies. Normalizing the feeling of hardship and creating frameworks that assist students in navigating it are the objectives, not medicalizing emotion.
Through the utilization of wellness survey data and mental health usage trends, these offices have become popular not just as caregivers but also as strategists. Analytics are driving their initiatives, which are customized through lived experience, student storytelling, and listening sessions.
During a school event, I observed a senior wellness officer pausing mid-sentence after recounting a student who had dropped out after waiting six weeks for care. She declared, “That wasn’t a policy failure.” “There was a planning error there.” For days, that line lingered in my mind.
The appointment of wellness chiefs is indicative of a wider cultural recognition that mental health is a problem that extends beyond professional treatment and institutional planning.
Students’ demands for improved access to mental health treatments have led to protests on numerous campuses in recent years. Part of the reason for these additional leadership positions is the mounting pressure. However, they also reflect a growing knowledge of how well-being affects community trust, graduation, and retention. Students that have support are much more likely to succeed in their intellectual, social, and emotional endeavors.
Food insecurity, housing instability, and financial worry are examples of systemic stresses that wellness chiefs are tackling through strategic partnerships with public health agencies. Their focus is on creating safety nets that capture students before they reach a crisis point, which frequently goes far beyond therapy.
However, there are still difficulties. One of the most difficult obstacles for wellness offices in their early stages is institutional inertia. Obtaining support from academics or administrators on campuses where mental health has historically been seen as a specialized issue can take time. Certain offices function with vague jurisdiction or small resources. Others find it difficult to measure their influence.
What is success? Lower dropout rates? Fewer calls to crisis lines? Increased toughness? The measurements are still changing.
One thing is certain, though: this model is here to stay.
As cultural norms surrounding mental health continue to change, having a wellness chief on staff might eventually become as commonplace as having a registrar or academic dean. In an environment where performance measurements and prestige rankings are frequently used to drive higher education, their role—managing human infrastructure and fostering a culture of care—is especially novel.
These positions don’t aim to make college simple. Their goal is to make it both survivable and, hopefully, revolutionary.
Wellness chiefs are assisting campuses in becoming places of healing as well as learning by using evidence-based tactics, coordinating institutional priorities, and elevating mental health to the level of strategic planning. And that could be one of the most promising developments in higher education to date.
