WSU Teaching Academy hosts mindfulness workshop Dec. 9

The Washington State University Teaching Academy is offering to all faculty and staff system-wide an online mindfulness workshop from noon to 1 p.m. Monday, Dec. 9, the first day of finals week.

To attend, guests must register to receive the Zoom link to join the workshop.

Leading the discussion are two members of the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Drs. Dawn DeWitt and Skye McKennon.

"For anyone feeling stressed or burned out heading into the final week of the semester, Drs. DeWitt and McKennon will help you understand, learn, and use skills to help combat stress and burnout," said academy chair Ashley Boyd. "The workshop may open doors to personal skills that could be life-changing."

DeWitt is the senior associate dean for the Center for InterProfessional Health Education Research and Scholarship (CIPHERS). A member of the WSU Teaching Academy, she has held administrative and faculty positions at universities in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Prior to her current WSU position, she served as the inaugural vice dean for student and faculty experience, and the inaugural associate dean for clinical education in Spokane. She has worked as an attending physician in Canada and the U.S., and as a consulting physician in Australia. In 2024, she received the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine Outstanding Contribution to Community Partnerships award and the WSU Woman of Distinction award in the administrator category.

McKennon is an associate professor in the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine. In 2024, she was awarded grant funding from CIPHERS to evaluate distress and promote well-being among healthcare professionals and learning in health sciences fields. She leads Interprofessional Colleagues Meeting to Promote and Sustain Satisfaction (I-COMPASS), a project designed to evaluate whether an intervention that positively impacts physician wellbeing will similarly impact health science learners. She spearheads a number of interprofessional education efforts at the WSU Health Sciences Spokane Campus. She was a 2024 faculty recipient of the Chancellor's Excellence Award.