“Harkin on Wellness:” Featuring Wellbeing in Schools

The Harkin Institute will present its annual “Harkin on Wellness” symposium, April 3, 2024 at Drake University.  This in-person event will also be live-streamed.  (See View Venue Website below.)

The keynote conversation for this event will be with US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy MD in a discussion with former Sen. Tom Harkin about the roles schools can and should play to address the persistent mental duress students are facing across the country.

The program and agenda were collaboratively developed by the Institute and WholeHealthED, building off their co-hosted June 22, 2023 webinar, “First Line of Defense: Confronting the Adolescent Mental Health Crisis through Interdisciplinary Whole Child Actions.”  (A summary is here.)

The second keynote will be delivered by Kathleen Ethier, Director of CDC’s Division of Adolescent School Health (DASH).  Two distinct panels will discuss:

—> the roles healthcare and mental health organizations are now starting to develop with the schools; and

–> the not-yet-well-known beneficial outcomes attained by students and faculty during participation in whole health learning practices like the school garden and mindful programs.

Centerpirece of the event: “Harkin on Wellness” team has selected 12 schools and districts from around the country whose work highlights the positive whole child outcomes students (and faculty) have experienced through participation in whole health learning activities.

See the complete Agenda, with speakers, here