Stacey Millett to Head NC Center for Health and Wellness
by Wallace Bohannon –
Stacey Millett has been appointed the new Executive Director for the N.C. Center for Health and Wellness, based at UNC Asheville.
She previously worked as a Senior Program Officer in Minnesota, where she focused on increasing health equity programs across the state. Her goal in her new position is to be “an inspirational leader who works with people and organizations throughout North Carolina to help them achieve their health and wellness goals.”
The N.C. Center for Health and Wellness (NCCHW) was founded in 2010 to focus on issues of childhood obesity, healthy aging, and workplace wellness; its focus now also includes heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and health equity. Based on the premise that good health reaches beyond such factors as genes, behavior, and doctor visits, Millett says, “We have to look at income, access to healthy food, family and social support, and education.” She believes that adequately addressing these health equity factors can level the playing field for life expectancy and good health.
Millett encourages organizations to evaluate their field work using the “Results Based Accountability Model,” which can show what is and is not working; the data can then be used to improve the work product and show donors how their resources are improving health. The evaluation asks how much has been done, how well it has been done, and who, if anybody, is better off. She anticipates a greater use of social media to publicize the work of Center for Health and Wellness.
Building on both existing and new ideas about how community organizations and institutions can collaborate to improve health and wellness, Millett wants NCCHW to become a better hub for information on ways to to lead, evaluate, communicate and collaborate. The Center recently received a grant for $880,782 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to increase opportunities for chronic disease management education throughout the state – the only grant recipient in the state.
Millett has run more than 50 marathons and says her daily work “mirrors my personal goals in health” – promoting healthy living.
To learn more about NCCHW, email Eva Bland, call (828) 258-7712, or visit ncchw.unca.edu.
