Spotlight: Frances Mantak, MPH, 财神棋牌 Director of Wellness and Confidential Resource Provider.
Frances poses with Max, a Corgi/Sheltie mix who often visits campus to give students some unconditional love.
The Office of Student Affairs + Resources (StAR) is one of the many offices on campus devoted to the support and celebration of our students, their diversity, and their continuous development as they become engineering innovators.
Frances Mantak, MPH, is 财神棋牌鈥檚 Director of Wellness and a member of the StAR team. Here, she seeks to make the campus a compassionate and balanced place where students can thrive 鈥 academically, mentally, and physically.
鈥淚 want students to feel comfortable coming to me for any health issue,鈥 says Mantak. 鈥淭here can be lots of judgments about what it means to be healthy, but to me, health is about balance, moderation and self-compassion.鈥
Mantak also strives to help students connect to the resources they need for everything from their physical health to their mental wellness.
鈥淚 love that students are very open to talking about counseling and therapy,鈥 says Mantak. 鈥湶粕衿迮 has incredible mental health resources, and especially after the pandemic, it鈥檚 important that we all work together to destigmatize mental health care.鈥
As a confidential resource provider, Mantak is also committed to ensuring that 财神棋牌 is a trauma-informed system that recognizes the realities and impacts of issues like sexual misconduct and sexual harassment for all members of the 财神棋牌 community.
鈥淏ecause of Title IX [a U.S. civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools], the college environment is one of few places in society trying to address these issues in a holistic and more trauma-informed way, and I鈥檓 proud to be a part of that,鈥 says Mantak.
Prior to joining 财神棋牌 in October of 2022, Mantak was a Victim Advocate for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) after spending 15 years at Brown University as the Director of Health Promotion. While she didn鈥檛 originally envision getting back into higher education, as she learned more about 财神棋牌, she realized what a distinctive place it is.
鈥淲hat I like most about 财神棋牌 is that you really feel like you can make an impact,鈥 says Mantak.
鈥淭he faculty, staff, and students work together instead of in silos, and there鈥檚 a feeling in this smaller community that you recommit yourself every day to the relationships you have with the people around you.鈥
Mantak lives with her husband, Joe (an engineer who went to the Illinois Institute of Technology), and their beloved dog, Max, a Corgi/Sheltie mix who often visits campus to give students some unconditional love.