Alex Harvey
Equinox Staff
There are changes in the works at the Center for Health and Wellness here at Keene State College. After spending a decade as the director of the Counseling Center, Dr. Brian Quigley has been named the Interim Director of the Center for Health and Wellness, alongside a proposed restructure of the Center for Health and Wellness that would incorporate the Counseling Center.
According to Dean Gail M. Zimmerman, “The director for the Center of Health and Wellness took one of the voluntary separations, so that position has been vacant since February. And I had been, because both of those positions report to me, I had been overseeing the Health and Wellness Center. So we have worked with the staff on a plan, not really to merge, but to restructure the services that would then facilitate for a single director, rather than having two directors. There will certainly be, and the proposal includes plans for Chief Clinical Operators, and officers in both of those units. But that reorganization is not finalized, and it’s only in the proposal stage.”
Until these changes have been formalized, Dr. Quigley is responsible for directing both the Counseling Center and the Center for Health and Wellness. While it appears that Dr. Quigley is a likely candidate for permanent director of the Center for Health and Wellness, when and if this restructure occurs, this has not been made official. “That remains to be seen, I can’t answer that question, but personally I would certainly hope for that. Dr. Quigley is an excellent director and administrator, and he’s done wonderful things with the counseling center, so I would have high hopes in the proposed arrangement,” Zimmerman said.
It is not currently known when this restructuring will be formalized. “I hesitate to call it a merger,” said Dean Zimmerman. “It’s really a restructuring of the units, that will hopefully gain some efficiencies, but from the student perspective, the students are not going to see a dramatic change in counseling services or in the health services or in our wellness promotion programs. Hopefully they will see a more integrated unit, but the individual services, when you go to the counseling center, you are going to receive the same quality of care that you now receive. When you go for health services, you will receive the same quality of care that you now receive. It’s really an administrative structuring of those services to gain some efficiencies.”
For his part, Dr. Quigley insisted that his new position comes not with challenges, but with opportunities: “Those are opportunities to really re-envision what the delivery of the comprehensive and holistic health services could include on our campus, so it’s really that chance to say ‘let’s step back and look at both the mental health services and the physical health services that we deliver, and the wellness promotion education services that we deliver, and make sure that they are strategically informed and mutually effective for one another.’ It’s really that opportunity that I’ve had to figure out a vision for a more optimal and integrated and holistic health services for students who come to Keene State.” Dr. Quigley also spoke about the process of transitioning into his new position. “We are currently transitioning, it’s been exciting to have the opportunity to spend more time in the clinic getting to know their staff, more time working with Tiffany Matthews [who was unavailable for interview] in the wellness promotion area, getting to know her. So these first few weeks have really involved being on a learning tour of getting to know the Center for Health and Wellness more thoroughly than we have.”
Alex Harvey can be contacted at
aharvey@ksc.equinox.com
