Undergraduate Academic Affairs

August 3, 2018

Resilience Lab announces 2018 seed grant recipients

Undergraduate Academic Affairs

Grass seedlings imageThe University of Washington Resilience Lab recently awarded 16 grants to UW projects designed to cultivate kindness, compassion and gratitude; to engage hardships, setbacks and failures with compassion and vulnerability; to foster connectedness, belonging and community; and to embrace both common humanity and diversity within the human experience. Students, staff and faculty from all three campuses applied for seed grants to fund research, workshops, retreats, activities, faculty-invited speakers and other events tailored for students, faculty and staff in support of these aims. The Resilience Lab awarded a total of $25,000 to the individuals and groups. This base amount was increased by 41% through matching funds from the associated schools, colleges and departments. The combined support raises the total value of these awards to more than $35,500.

 

The range of proposals demonstrate the need and collective interest to realize resilience-building and compassion-building work. In all, students, faculty and staff submitted 44 proposals from 29 different departments across all three UW campuses. From that group, 16 grants were made to fund the ideas of faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students representing 13 departments from all three UW campuses. Funded projects are intended to benefit the broad UW community.

 

“The creative ideas people had to build connection and support well-being was just inspiring,” said Anne Browning, director of the Resilience Lab. Projects range from alleviating burnout among medical residents, a resilience and compassion podcast series, a wellness challenge and much more, all with the intent of creating more compassionate and resilient communities.

 

For their project, “What Compassion Looks Like: Journaling for Self-Kindness,” School of Medicine associate professors Jennifer Best and Jennifer Zumsteg said, “We hope to break down Health Sciences silos, foster vulnerability and combat isolation in clinical practice and education; cultivate peer communities; and curate stories of self-compassion to sustain our community.”

 

A list of funded projects and the project leads is below. For more information about the projects, visit the UW Resilience Lab’s website. Funding for these seed grants is provided by the Maritz Foundation.

 

Funded projects and project leads are:

 

A Pilot Study of Search Inside Yourself for UW Faculty and Staff

Project lead: Anthony Back, Professor, School of Medicine, Oncology, Seattle

 

Building Compassion and Promoting Burnout Recovery Through Resident Team Reflection

Project lead: Michelle Lam, Resident Physician, School of Medicine, Seattle

 

CARE Training to Prevent Burnout and Improve Well-Being at the Center for Equity and Inclusion

Project lead: Jane Compson, Associate Professor, Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs, School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, Tacoma

 

Changing the Culture of the University: Beginning Within

Project lead: Kelly Edwards, Associate Dean, Student and Postdoctoral Affairs in the Graduate School; Professor, Department of Bioethics and Humanities, School of Medicine, Seattle

 

Cultivating Compassion and Resilience Through Mindful Inquiry

Project lead: Anil Coumar, Clinical Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, Seattle

 

Engaging Students in Creating Inclusive, Welcoming and Connected Learning Environments

Project lead: Sujata Pradhan, Associate Professor, Rehabilitation Medicine, School of Medicine, Seattle

 

Knit for Nice

Project lead: Alyssa Taylor, Senior Lecturer, Bioengineering, College of Engineering and School of Medicine, Seattle

 

Map of Restorative Spaces on UW Seattle’s Campus

Project lead: Beck Tench, Ph.D. student, The Information School

 

The Resiliency Collective

Project lead: Marissa Jackson, Master of Public Health student, School of Public Health

 

Resilience and Compassion Podcast Series

Project lead: Gregory Heller, Adviser, Senior Associate Director, MBA Career Management, Foster School of Business, Seattle

 

Self Care is Revolutionary

Project lead: Alice Pederson, Lecturer, School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, Bothell

 

Starting the Year off Right: Cultivating Community in the Epidemiology Department

Project lead: Jen Balkus, Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology, School of Medicine, Seattle

 

Trauma Informed Yoga

Project lead: Brittany Bowhall, Student Advocate for Sexual Assault, Relationship Violence, Stalking, and Harassment, Health and Wellness, Division of Student Life, Seattle

 

What Compassion Looks Like: Journaling for Self -Kindness

Project lead: Jennifer Best, Associate Professor, General Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, and Jennifer Zumsteg, Assistant Professor, General Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Seattle

 

The Whole U Summer Wellness Challenge

Project lead: Lauren Updyke, Assistant Director, The Whole U, Bothell, Seattle and Tacoma

 

About the UW Resilience Lab

The Resilience Lab promotes resilience development while normalizing failure and acknowledging the wide range of hardships our community members have faced and continue to face. As a laboratory space, the Resilience Lab tries new and creative methods for rethinking the UW experience in and out of the classroom.