The new semester has brought a few new faces to the University’s staff, including two new additions to the health services department. Katie Scheinberg, APRN (Advance Practice Registered Nurse), will be joining Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) as a full-time Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, and Seirra Fowler will be the WesWell Director.
Dean and Vice President of Student Affairs Mike Whaley notified the University community of this on Monday morning via email.
Whaley informed the students that Scheinberg worked previously as an Adolescent Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner at the Village for Families and Children in Hartford, Conn.
“[She] believes in a client-centered approach that focuses on the balance of psychopharmacologic [sic] treatment in partnership with therapy,” Whaley wrote. “When she is not working, [she] can be found playing with her kids, going to a Zumba class or trying out some new recipes.”
The email also provided some background information on Fowler, who used to work as Assistant Director of Wellness and Health Promotion at Louisiana State University.
“…Some of her key responsibilities included: managing campus interpersonal violence prevention education and advocacy programming, coordinating rapid, opt-out HIV testing in the student health center, and individual consults on various health topics,” the email reads. “[Fowler] is excited to join and learn about the vibrant Wes community, while continuing to learn from a new group of students and colleagues.”
Fowler does not currently have plans to make changes to WesWell.
“I think it’s really important before changes are made, to learn the lay of the land, engage with others on campus, and understand different perspectives — before making major changes,” wrote Fowler in an email to The Argus. “I am lucky that the precious director left things in a great place, to have an awesome Health Education Specialist, and PHAs who have been supporting WesWell as well.”
That being said, Fowler is hoping to focus on assessments to better understand the changing needs of students.
“For this semester, I think the overall goal in the short-term and long-term, is for WesWell to be visible, engaging with students and student groups, and helping and guiding students in living their best, healthy life,” Fowler wrote. “The PHAs have been making some exciting changes to some programming too…In the long-term, WesWell is hoping to take part in more collaborative efforts on campus to capitalize on other great work being done, and greater work we can create and do together.”
Both new appointments come as a welcome change. An anonymous student who had been affected by the lack of a CAPS practitioner shared her thoughts upon hearing of the new hires.
“[I] was so excited to see that CAPS finally has an RN, because I had just gone home and dealt with the reality of having a general practitioner who’s not thrilled about prescribing psychiatric meds,” she said. “Although I’ll be graduating soon, it’s still nice to have someone available on campus, especially if for some reason I need to change my prescription. I think it’s going to be a huge relief for students who financially weren’t able to go elsewhere.”