M+C

Congratulations to the winners of the 2013 university-wide senior student awards.

Join us in celebrating these deserving students and wishing them the best in their future endeavors.

• Shane Winslow, Excelsior Award
• Alexandra Ivers, Faculty Senate Award
• Adam Gottula, NKU Foundation Student Leadership Award
• Mary Osbourne, Paul J. Sipes Award
• Janol Vinson, President’s Award
• Amy Clippinger, Regents’ Award
• Kayla Justice, University Service Award

The Northern Kentucky Forum will hold an event May 23, 6:30-8 p.m. in the Dixie Heights High School auditorium (3010 Dixie Highway).

Is this the end of work/life balance? Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO, and Marissa Mayor, Yahoo CEO, are challenging many current ideas on the flexibility of a family’s time, talent, health and children. Their influential philosophies continue the debate that women have had for decades – is it better to work or to stay at home full time with your children?

Helping us to make sense of these complex questions, Dr. Adrianne Frech from the University of Akron will discuss her research, which has been featured in The New York Times. Frech will focus on health and a mother’s decision to work. Her speech, “Does full-time work really mean better health for mothers?” will be a discussion with moms whose work/family life patterns have changed through the years.

“I made the choice to stay at home with my children,” said Tara Ford, chair of the Northern Kentucky Forum board. “I understand that this is a difficult and extremely personal choice for each family. No matter what choice is made, or if making the desired choice isn’t an option, we hope our community will benefit from hearing and thinking about local parents’ experiences. I am pleased the forum is taking on this topic to shed more light on the challenges individuals and families face as they raise their children.”

Frech was featured in The New York Times “Motherlode: Adventures in Parenting” blog August 23, 2012, under the headline: “Full-time work means better health for mothers.” Panelists for the May 23 event include Jeanne Schroer, Leshia Lyman and Christine Barth. It will be moderated by Enquirer editor Carolyn Washburn.

The event is free and open to the public. Optional RSVP is available at engage@nku.edu. Parents are welcome to bring their children with a coloring book or other quiet activity.

On May 22, the forum will cohost a town-hall discussion of Kentucky election laws and what changes might be considered. Secretary of State Allison Lundergan Grimes will moderate. Should Kentucky consider same-day voter registration? Online voting? Fewer restrictions on absentee voting? Come and voice your opinion. This event also will be at Dixie Heights. It begins at 5:30 p.m.

The Northern Kentucky Forum is a partnership of the NKU Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement, Vision 2015 and Legacy – three nonpartisan groups in northern Kentucky dedicated to public engagement. The forum conducts several “public square” events each year around current events and public policy in locations across Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties. Forum events are free to the northern Kentucky community as a whole. Additional information is available at http://www.nkyforum.org.

NKU has once again, for the third year in a row, been named the Healthiest Employer of Greater Cincinnati in the category of employers with 1,500-4,999 employees.

The Business Courier named five winners in various employer size categories in its 2013 Healthiest Employers of Greater Cincinnati competition at an awards event at Cintas Center.

It has been a pivotal year for the wellness agenda at NKU, as this year brought the inaugural Wellness@Work Awards, where internal departments and colleges compete to be awarded and recognized for their efforts in promoting healthy lifestyles for employees.

“We have seen an extraordinary shift where whole departments and colleges are adopting a commitment to health,” said Karen Campbell, director of the NKU Wellness Center. “This self-propelling momentum is a true indicator of a culture that is empowered to achieve wellbeing, and we wanted to reward those who were leading the way.”

In his first year, NKU President Geoffrey Mearns has continued leadership support of employees’ health and wellbeing in many ways, most notably with an NKU Board of Regents resolution to create and adopt a tobacco-free campus policy.

“Upon hearing of our healthiest employer award, I once again felt very proud of the people who work here and am happy to continue our commitment to their health as we look to our future,” Mearns said.

The Business Courier partnered with the privately held technology and data research firm, Healthiest Employers, to assess the corporate wellness programs of nominated companies. In all, 26 companies were recognized for this year’s program.

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