Wellness Ambassador of the Month
Donna Gutierrez of Development and Alumni Relations

How long have you worked at UC Davis?

This February will be 22 years working for UC Davis. I’ve been at my current role for 14 years.

What does Wellness mean to you?

Wellness means a great many things to me, including identifying with physical, nutritional, mental, and social well-being. Mostly, to me, it means being in the state of holistic happiness.

Why did you become a wellness ambassador?

I’m passionate about my own personal well-being and when the opportunity came I volunteered in order to share my passion with the rest of my team.

How long have you been a wellness ambassador?

I’ve been a Wellness Ambassador just over two years.

What has been the most rewarding or positive about your experience thus far?

I find being a Wellness Ambassador has given me the opportunity to learn more about ways to live a healthy lifestyle. Sharing that information with my team has been rewarding as their feedback, upon receiving this information, has been positive and encouraging. In addition, I have developed wonderful friendships with my committee members who are just as passionate about sharing health and well-being with the rest of our team.

What are some challenges you face as a wellness ambassador, especially through the pandemic this past year?

The biggest challenge faced this past year was not being able to implement in-person health and wellness activities for our team. However, my committee and I took this challenge head-on creating and implementing a virtual challenge encouraging our team to be active for at least 30 minutes a day for 5 days out of the week. It did not matter what time of the day or what day of the week, or what type of activity. We designed the challenge so that participants could focus on their physical and mental well-being regardless of their job function or level of physique. We had an overwhelming response to the five-month challenge with participants collectively logging in 144,000 minutes of various activities. Lessoned learned from this challenge was that five months was too long.

What is one piece of advice you would like to share with new wellness ambassadors?

I recommend recruiting other members of your team to help come up with ways to share and implement health and wellness activities. I found having a committee has been very helpful to come up with innovative ways to implement and share health and well-being activities. More heads are better than one.

Staff and Faculty Health and Well-being aims to build an environment that makes the healthier choice the easier one, while providing staff and faculty with the required support to make UC Davis the healthiest community. How do you feel you have contributed to our mission?

I have taken the role as the Wellness Ambassador to its highest standards incorporating various wellness events and messaging through a number of media platforms, such as our webpage, newsletter, slack channel, and email listserv in hopes to engage our team to focus on their health and wellness. There are so many valuable resources available at our fingertips and so easy to share.

What is your favorite thing to do in your spare time?

I enjoy being in the great outdoors be it running, hiking, walking or simply being surrounded by loved ones.