Well-being Summit
The Towson University Well-Being Collective, a cross-campus leadership group guided by the Okanagan Charter, invites faculty, staff, students, and university leadership to a half-day summit designed to move from conversation to action.
Date and Location
- March 26, 2026
University Union 3rd Floor
Schedule
- 8:30 - 9:45 a.m. — Opening Session: Featuring, President Mark Ginsberg and members of his Executive Leadership Team, The Well-being Collective, and SGA President, Allyyah Aali
- 10 - 10:45 a.m. — Fireside chat with Jasmine Williams (moderated by Nora Clark-Giles)
- 11 - 11:45 a.m. — Breakout sessions
- 12 - 1:30 p.m. — Keynote speaker, Bernadette Melnyk, and plated lunch
Registration
Registration will open in January 2026.
About the Speakers
Keynote Speaker: Bernadette Melnyk
Bernadette Melnyk, PhD, APRN-CNP, EBP-C, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN is an inspirational speaker, author, leader, innovator, entrepreneur and recognized expert in evidence-based practice, mental health, population health and well-being, intervention research and organizational culture change.
Bern is CEO and founder of COPE2Thrive, LLC. and president and co-founder of EBPSolutions, LLC. For 13 years, she served as Vice President for Health Promotion and Chief Wellness Officer at The Ohio State University, the first at an institution of higher learning in the nation.
She is editor of 10 books, has more than 600 publications and over $36 million dollars of sponsored funding from NIH, AHRQ and foundations as a principal investigator. She is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Nursing that has recognized her three times as an Edge Runner, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academies of Practice, and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.
Dr. Melnyk is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Nursing that has recognized her three times as an Edge Runner, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academies of Practice, and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.
She served a four-year term on the United States Preventive Services Task Force, the National Advisory Council for the National Institute for Nursing Research, and the Behavioral Health Standing Committee of the National Quality Forum. In addition, she served as dean of The Ohio State University College of Nursing and Arizona State University’s College of Nursing and Health Innovation where she led the colleges to top “U.S. News and World Report” and NIH research funding rankings.
Dr. Melnyk is editor-in-chief of Sigma’s top ranked journal “Worldviews on Evidence-based Nursing.” She was appointed to the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-being and Resilience in 2017 on which she still continues to serve, on the advisory board for the ANA’s Healthy Nurse Healthy Nation initiative and is the founder and past president of the National Consortium for Building Healthy Academic Communities.
Fireside Chat Speaker: Jasmine Williams
After an unexpected loss her freshman year of college, Jasmine Williams hit rock bottom. With no clear roadmap to cope, she struggled to get her mental health back on track.
Now as an Adversity + Resilience Speaker, Jasmine Williams teaches audiences how failure and adversity can help them grow. Using her firsthand experiences, Jasmine helps audiences support classmates and colleagues through grief, anxiety and other difficult experiences.
Jasmine also works as a public speaking coach to teach others how to deliver a polished message with confidence. She graduated from High Point University with her B.A. in communication and a minor in psychology.