Lunch and Learns
Lunch & Learns
Our lunch and learns offer staff and faculty a learning environment which promotes healthy lifestyle choices by increasing awareness, and supporting lifestyle changes. Lunch and Learns also offer an opportunity to gather, create connections and build relationships, which helps support your social-emotional well-being. We know that healthier lifestyles among faculty and staff will in turn create happier, more productive individuals who benefit themselves, Macalester, and the greater community.
Upcoming Lunch & Learns
Alcohol Use Screening and Interventions
Wednesday, November 19, 2025 – Focus Area: Heart Health & Cancer Prevention
Have you wondered what life might be like with less alcohol? Want to try another approach to lowering your blood pressure or reducing your risk for cancer? You’re in good company.
On Wednesday, November 19 WHAM will host Dr. Paul Anderson, MD, MPH, Regional Medical Director for HealthPartners and a Lifestyle Medicine practitioner for a virtual Lunch & Learn exploring effective alcohol use screening and interventions. In this informative session, you’ll learn the crucial role of moderating alcohol use in preventing common chronic diseases and improving overall longevity. Dr. Anderson will cover evidence-based approaches that promote wellbeing and reduce health risks.
This session will also serve as a kick-off for our next Mindful Drinking Group Coaching series led by our health and well-being coach, Kelly Fang. To learn more and register, visit the Mindful Drinking Group Coaching Form.
Register to join us for the Lunch & Learn on Zoom at 12:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 19.
Reimagining Perimenopause and Menopause Hormone Therapy
Wednesday, September 24, 2025 – Focus: Mental and Physical Health
Join our health coach, Kelly Fang, for a vital Lunch and Learn to discuss the recent FDA hearing on Menopausal Hormone Therapy (MHT). This session will delve into how experts are challenging outdated medical dogma and the harm caused by misconceptions surrounding the 2002 WHI study. We’ll explore the significant, often overlooked, health benefits of MHT, including its potential for cardiovascular health, bone strength, and cognitive function.
Discover the crucial nuances of hormone formulations, routes, and timing, and learn about the urgent call for the removal of misleading blackbox warnings that create unnecessary fear and barriers to care. This is an opportunity to separate evidence from myth and gain a deeper understanding of this critical topic in women’s health.
Lunch will be catered by Bon Appetit at 11:45 a.m. on Wednesday, September 24, in the Leonard Center’s Hall of Fame room. The presentation will be from 12:00 to 12:50 p.m.
Past Lunch & Learns
The Pursuit of Happiness: Creating A Sustainable Work-Life Balance (Virtual)
Wednesday, March 26, 2025 – Focus: Stress Management
In our rapidly changing world, stress has become ever so invasive in our lives; information overload, changes in technology, information processing, social networking, social media, and global economic dynamics affect everything from our sleep patterns, work habits and eating behaviors to communication styles and exercise habits; all of which affects health and productivity.
This session offers wisdom, insights and practical life skills for both personal growth and professional development. Topics to be discussed include establishing healthy boundaries, achieving a work-life balance, and essential coping and relaxation skills to help create and maintain a sustainable work-life balance. Creating a happy life is very possible, but first we must lay a solid foundation incorporating healthy boundaries and positive coping skills. Included in this presentation are valuable positive psychology, take-home tools and skills for all participants, based on our speaker’s WELCOA book, The Road to Wellness.
Learning objectives include:
- Define the concept of “Healthy Boundaries” in one’s personal life.
- Identify several positive coping skills for personal work-life balance.
- Illustrate one relaxation skill for personal work-life balance.
Brian Luke Seaward, Ph.D. is recognized nationally and internationally as one of the foremost experts in the field of Resiliency, Stress Management and Corporate Health Promotion. In addition to being regarded as an esteemed inspirational/motivational speaker, the wisdom of Brian Luke Seaward can be found quoted in PBS specials, The Chicago Tribune, The Huffington Post, college graduation speeches, medical seminars, boardroom meetings, church sermons, and keynote addresses all over the world. He has authored more than twenty (20) books, including the popular best sellers, Stand Like Mountain, Flow Like Water, The Art of Calm and Stressed Is Desserts Spelled Backward and the leading award winning college textbook, Managing Stress (11 ed). His corporate clients include Hewlett Packard, Royal Caribbean, Wells Fargo, TransAmeric
Parental Mental Health
Wednesday, February 26, 2025 – Focus: Mental & Emotional Health
Last year, the US Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, issued an advisory to call attention to the stress and mental health concerns facing parents and caregivers, the bidirectional relationship between parental mental health and child outcomes, and what we can do to address them.
WHAM has invited Ann Shroeder, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and grief therapist at the Center for Grief and Loss (FamilyMeans) to provide an overview of the advisory and share insights from her experience working in adult mental health.
We’ll also be joined by Annie Pezalla, Visiting Assistant Professor in Developmental Psychology and Family Studies at Macalester who will discuss her recent work studying the Gentle Parenting movement.
Lastly, Kelly Fang, our Senior Well-being Program Manager and Health Coach with HealthPartners, will outline what policies and programs exist to support parents at Macalester.
Ann Schroeder earned her Master’s in Social Work at St. Catherine/St. Thomas in 2018 following a career as a freelance editor/writer and stay-at-home parent of three children. Her interest in mental health began when she was an undergraduate at St. Olaf College and expanded as she navigated the wonderful and challenging landscape of parenting. Prior to joining the Center for Grief and Loss in 2024, she worked in an inpatient psychiatric setting, then as a psychotherapist in a therapy practice serving the college and young adult population. She also holds a master’s degree in English Lit and never tires of a good Victorian novel.
Dr. Annie Pezalla (Penn State, 2011) is a developmental psychologist and family studies scholar who studies the joys and stressors of parenting young children. When she’s not analyzing her data, Annie and her partner Andy are chasing around their 11-year-old twin boys or fantasizing about travel.
How to Eat as a Lifestyle
Thursday, February 6, 2025 – Focus: Nutrition
Food is not just energy and nutrition, it’s also culture, tradition, pleasure, and much more. How do you balance all these aspects to feel your best, prevent disease, and enjoy food? It took integrative nutritionist, Jesse Haas, multiple degrees and advanced certifications in nutrition to see the balancing point for these differing qualities. Let her make your path to understanding how to eat as a lifestyle more efficient! This presentation covers practical and reasonable “must know info” to sow the seeds of sustainable eating habits at any stage of life. Learn visual cues to balance macronutrient needs without calorie counting, weighing or measuring food, following a specific diet or logging your daily intake. Could eating in a way that supports your health be that simple? Yes…and delicious too! Bring your questions for the Q&A session that will follow this presentation.
Jesse Haas is a Licensed Nutritionist, Certified Nutrition Specialist, certified Health Coach and proud food nerd. She obtained her BS in nutrition dietetics from the University of Minnesota in 2010, and her MS in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine from the University of Western States in 2017. She’s been working in integrative health care since 2005, both as a health care provider and educator. In both roles, she aims to demystify health, nutrition, cooking and the day-to-day ways we care for ourselves, so that her patients and students are empowered and inspired to make sustainable dietary and lifestyle changes that improve their health and wellbeing. One student described Jesse as being “…so good at explaining things in pithy, wonderful ways,” which is a reputation she strives to uphold.
Cardiovascular and Metabolic Health
Wednesday, November 20, 2024 – Focus: Heart Health
Join Dr. Aidanne for a talk on using food, botanicals, and lifestyle changes to support healthy blood pressure and cholesterol. Cardiovascular wellness is vital for overall health, as high blood pressure and cholesterol are major risk factors for heart disease. Dr. Aidanne, a licensed naturopathic doctor with Wellness Minneapolis specializes in women’s health, cardiovascular wellness, and digestive care.
You can email Kelly Fang if you would like a link to the recording of this session.
Food for Focus
Wednesday, October 30, 2024 – Focus: Nutrition & Mental Well-being
This presentation is designed to teach people the connection between what they eat and how they think. You will learn what foods and lifestyle tools support your brain. You’ll learn about adaptogens and how they can work with your body to keep you clear and focused! And though we will not have a cooking demonstration in this workshop, you will receive some recipes to inspire you to cook for your brain health.
Anna Klimmek is a Chef, RYT200 Yoga Instructor, Certified Health Coach and owner of two small businesses, Happy Food MN and Breakthrough Adventures. Both companies focus on bringing wellness to the community through food and adventure. Anna is a Le Cordon Bleu grad with nearly 20 years of culinary experience and a certification as a holistic health coach from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. She is a guest chef at Cooks of Crocus Hill and is often featured on Twin Cities Live. In her free time she can be found hanging out with her very cool 18 year old daughter, Ophelia. She enjoys being active outdoors, being a tourist in her own town, using the sauna, swimming, and cooking outdoors at her family cabin. Anna practices Asana and Meditation and is planning her next BIG trip to India in 2025! Learn more at https://happyfoodmn.com/