Colleen first gained interest in worksite well-being and benefits while pursuing her bachelor’s degree. While taking courses with the intent of pursuing an engineering degree, both of Colleen’s maternal grandparents’ health began to quickly decline.
“I watched as my mother balanced working a very demanding job, becoming a full time care-taker for her father, and trying to preserve what little health her mother had left. All of this while trying to maintain her own health and marriage. I knew these things were difficult, and I also knew my mother’s stressful career had taken a toll on her health as well. My gut reaction was, ‘I never want to be like that’. This was true of both my grandparents, and their dependence on my mother, as well as my mother and her consuming job. That quickly evolved into, ‘how do I help others to not experience this for themselves and their own families?’. I knew intuitively that work had an impact on our health, that I wanted to preserve my own health as long as I could, and help others to do the same.”