Health TEAM Lab
The Health TEAM Lab provides UC Davis students, staff, and faculty a place to learn about the interactions between diet, physical activity, and health/well-being as well as be routinely tested for various health metrics and receive personalized nutrition, physical activity, and motivational coaching.
Introduction:
Increasing the health literacy of community members and tracking individual health metrics can help participants make informed, healthy, lifestyle decisions, and is essential for evaluating a community culture of health and the effectiveness of specific health/well-being programming efforts. The Healthy UC Davis (HUCD) Mission, Vision, and Values are to champion a thriving culture of health and well-being, to make UC Davis the healthiest community in the nation, with the fundamental premise that the behaviors associated with health and well-being can be learned, but requires individual awareness and commitment. The Health TEAM Lab supports this mission by providing campus community members the opportunity to have their strength, flexibility, blood pressure and other health metrics monitored on a regular basis and receive personalized suggestions for ways to maintain or improve their health. The program consists of a three-member faculty/staff leadership team with expertise in exercise, nutrition, and psychology; a graduate student researcher who oversees day-to-day lab operations; and undergraduate interns who directly interact with program participants and conduct “tabling” and fitness/health testing.
Outcomes:
The Health TEAM Lab provides information directly to participants about their health metrics and what they can do to improve these metrics. Data collected throughout the year will be used to evaluate the association between various HUCD programs/policy changes and health outcome metrics. This evidence is critical for making informed recommendations to the administration regarding the impact of HUCD and long-term organizational structure and financial support. The program also provides valuable hands-on education for the numerous undergraduates assisting with this program.
Opportunities for Involvement:
The Health TEAM Lab interns are excited to work with the campus community to provide free health metric testing and nutrition coaching. The Health TEAM Lab resumes operations on March 29th and will be open on Tuesdays and Thursdays 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM and 4:00 – 6:00 PM through June 2nd. Please visit us in-person (Hutchinson Hall, Room 171) or online via Zoom (ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95238896705) during one of these times and get your health metrics checked and your nutrition evaluated. The UC Davis community can contact members of the Health TEAM Lab via email @ HTL@ucdavis.edu and follow our informational posts on social media @UCDHealthTEAM.
Visit the Health Team Lab website for up-to-date information
Follow the Health TEAM Lab on social media:
Recent Milestones:
The Health TEAM Lab began providing in-person services to the campus community on September 30th. We added virtual services during winter quarter 2022. As of mid-March, more than 50 members of the campus community have utilized our services and some of them more than once. We look forward to providing our free services to more members of the campus community during spring quarter when we resume operations on March 29th.
Project Leads:
David Hawkins
Professor
Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior
dahawkins@ucdavis.edu
Paul Salitsky
Lecturer Emeritus
Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior
pbsalitsky@ucdavis.edu
Linda Adams
Dietitian
Safety Services
lwadams@ucdavis.edu