Our Guiding Principles
Healthy living is a choice and a lifestyle, but unless you’re in a supportive environment, it can be challenging. In 2013, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block announced the Healthy Campus Initiative (HCI), a vision of Jane and Terry Semel and supported by them. As a result of the initiative’s success in fostering a culture of physical, emotional and social well-being, Chancellor Block announced on May 9th, 2018, the establishment of the Semel HCI Center at UCLA.
Vision
An inclusive culture of health where everyone has the opportunity to thrive and flourish
Mission
Semel HCI Center aims to build a culture of health as the foundation for a resilient, equitable, and thriving community for over 85,000 students, faculty, staff at UCLA and inspire others.
Strategy
Semel HCI Center acts as a spark plug and home for well-being-related innovation on campus, bridges diverse departments and stakeholders, and leverages the strengths across and beyond our campus, building on the rich local knowledge as well as the world-renowned research and teaching at UCLA. We pair content area faculty and senior management operators to co-lead thematic workgroups within the Semel HCI Center, called “pods” (BEWell/Built Environment, BreatheWell, EatWell, EngageWell, MindWell, and ResearchWell). Not only does this leadership structure help accelerate the translation of research to evidence-based practice on UCLA’s campus and beyond, but it also expands the breadth and reach of Semel HCI Center’s impact. Pod leaders utilize asset mapping and mobilization to identify possible collaborators across and beyond campus, and apply the five conditions for collective impact: (1) share a common agenda, (2) provide a coordinating structure, (3) engage in mutually reinforcing activities, (4) participate in continuous communication, and (5) agree on shared measurement systems to evaluate and boost progress. Students, staff, faculty, and broader community members are all welcome and encouraged to attend pod meetings, submit proposals to translate research to practice, test innovative ideas, participate in transdisciplinary well-being research, teach experiential courses, and provide programming for on and off campus communities. These activities propel knowledge discovery, sharing, innovation, and engagement through the facilitation of discussions, inquiry, forums, and community building where differing viewpoints and lived experiences are shared and diversity is valued.
Core Values
The Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center at UCLA continues to innovate towards building a culture of physical, mental, and social well-being on UCLA’s campus. Identifying and mobilizing the strengths and assets of the UCLA community is one of the key ingredients in building a culture of well-being from the inside out. Our core values are aligned with UCLA’s True Bruin Values and guide our work:
Foster health and well-being – Create an environment that fosters health and well-being and maximizes human and planetary health by illuminating the interdependence of human and environmental systems and advancing holistic solutions
Encourage responsibility – Educate individuals and communities about the impact of their actions and empower them to make positive change
Celebrate diversity – Foster an inclusive environment that prioritizes empathy and embraces differences in values and approaches to health and well-being
Strive for equity – Identify health disparities and generate solutions for equitable access to health resources and a healthful environment
Be integrative – Drive empathetic change by integrating approaches across disciplines, departments, and stakeholders, and take an integrated approach to mind and body well-being
As a land grant institution, the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center at UCLA acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (Los Angeles basin, So. Channel Islands).