Home Faculty and Staff Graduate Student Mental Health and Well-Being Graduate Student Mental Health and Well-Being Supporting graduate student mental health and wellness is an essential component of Rackham’s mission to advance excellence in graduate education, to cultivate a vibrant and diverse student community, and to impact the public good through scholarship. Rackham Committee on Graduate Student Mental Health and Well-Being Committee Members Advisory Group Rackham Committee on Graduate Student Mental Health and Well-Being The committee hopes to shift the focus from being primarily on whether students are making progress towards their degree. Instead, we call on Rackham Graduate School and graduate programs to prioritize graduate-student health and well-being alongside academic success. In promoting and prioritizing student health, we emphasize the World Health Organization definition of health: a state of physical, mental, and social well-being. Rackham’s Mental Health and Well-Being (MHW) Committee is focused on advocating for the mental health and well-being of graduate students, including ensuring that graduate student mental health and well-being are prioritized by Rackham and individual graduate programs. The MHW Committee is working to implement the recommendations of the Rackham Graduate School’s Task Force on Graduate Student Mental Health (which ran from 2019-2021) and is also developing resources that departments and graduate programs can use to promote graduate student mental health and well-being. The MHW Committee, and its associated Advisory Group, will also work to identify emerging issues, to evaluate potential resources and changes, and to ensure that efforts within Rackham are well-integrated with those elsewhere at the university. This work is urgently needed to better support the health and well-being of our students. Many graduate students face mental health challenges such as major depression, severe anxiety, disordered eating, and/or suicidal thoughts. A recent meta-analysis found that 24 percent of Ph.D. students showed clinically significant symptoms of depression, and 17 percent showed clinically significant symptoms of anxiety (Satinsky et al. 2021 Scientific Reports). This situation requires us to critically examine structures that can be changed to better support graduate student mental health and well-being. Supporting graduate student mental health and well-being is not only the right thing to do, but also will promote academic success and long-term health of students. Well-being and academic performance are interdependent and dynamic: four in ten graduate students reported that mental or emotional health affected their academic performance in the previous four weeks (Eisenberg et al. 2007 Am. J. Orthopsychiatry). Committee Members Back to Top We have assembled a diverse, multidisciplinary committee made up of faculty, staff, mental health professionals, and graduate students. Regina Baucom, Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Eric Bell, Professor, Astronomy Christi-Anne Castro, Associate Professor, Music Nadia Charania, Clinical Associate Professor, Nursing Lesli Hoey, Associate Professor, Urban and Regional Planning Ann Jeffers, Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering; Chair, Rackham Committee on Graduate Student Mental Health and Well-Being Sheila Murphy, Associate Professor, Film, Television, and Media Rosemary Perez, Associate Professor, Education Elizabeth Rohr, Well-Being Advocate, Academic Program Manager, Rackham Graduate School Catherine Sanok (ex officio), Associate Dean for Academic Programs and Initiatives, Rackham Graduate School Advisory Group Back to Top Ethriam Brammer, Assistant Dean, Rackham Graduate School Beth Cable, Student Success Coach, School of Public Health Angie Farrehi, Director of CARE Center, College of Engineering Jordan Fowler, Compliance Specialist Intermediate, Equity, Civil Rights, and Title IX Kate Hagadone, Mental Health and Wellness Counselor, Medical School Janet Jansen, Health Promotion Specialist, Wolverine Wellness Kat Nic, Lead Disability Access Coordinator for Graduate Students, Services for Students with Disabilities Elizabeth Rohr, Well-Being Advocate, Academic Program Manager, Rackham Graduate School Ida Faye Webster, Director, Rackham Program Review Rachelle Wilcox, Senior Associate Director of Specialty Services, University Health Service Joseph Zichi, Health & Wellness Collective Impact Lead, Wolverine Wellness
