Barbara Ashby Manager, Work-Life, Child Care & Family Services, University of California-Davis
Barbara Ashby has devoted her career and community service efforts to developing and implementing programs for working mothers and their children.
This Work-Life Rising Star, who has a master’s degree in child development and California Community College teaching credential, is honored for her role in launching UC Davis’ award-winning Breastfeeding Support Program and three on-site child development centers. The veteran university employee, with nearly 20 years of experience in family services to students, staff and faculty, has managed Child Care & Family Services at the university since 2001. Leadership of the Work-Life Program was added to her list of responsibilities in 2004.
With the new campus responsibilities came recognition from the community, including the 2005 and 2006 Mother-Baby Friendly Workplace awards from both the Breastfeeding Coalition of Yolo County and The California Task Force on Youth and Workplace Wellness. Her work also earned her the 2002 Family Services Award from the Orfalea Family Foundation and the AWLP Work-Life Innovative Excellence Award.
Outside of the campus boundaries, Ashby stays active with the Yolo County Preschool Planning Team and Child Care Planning Council, where she has served on committees to advocate for education and policy benefiting local youth.
Teresa Hopke Director, Work-Life Strategies, RSM McGladrey
To support RSM McGladrey employees in their professional and personal lives, Teresa Hopke is charged with developing and implementing programs, policies and individualized plans that create a healthy and happy work environment as director of Work-Life Strategies.
And she has succeeded in her mission. Hopke’s company has been the recipient of Working Mother Media’s 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers, the Minnesota Work-Life Advocate award, and the Conference Board’s Moving Into the Future award.
In her sixth year at RSM McGladrey, Hopke proved her leadership as the director of Compensation before becoming director of Work-Life Strategies three years ago. Her on-the-job knowledge has been supplemented by previous experience as a consultant for Mercer Human Resources Consulting, where Hopke helped clients develop work-life strategies and researched employee and employer views on work-life issues. Her work has been featured in the book, The Working Gal’s Guide to Babyville, by Paige Hobey and Allison Nied, M.D., as well as in media outlets including the CBS Morning Show, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune and Money Magazine.
For balance within her own life, Hopke is an outdoor enthusiast and a member of The Friends of the Boundary Water Canoe Area, the Minnesota Off Road Cycling association and the Superior Hiking Association.
John-Anthony Meza Associate Director, National Community Involvement,KPMG LLP
John-Anthony (“J-A”) Meza has made a career of blending corporate objectives with the nonprofit arena. Associate director of KPMG’s national community involvement program, Involve, Meza practices what he preaches.
Involve is the accounting firm’s commitment to building a culture of corporate citizenship to make a positive impact through service, time and resources. To encourage the campaign’s success, Meza, a human resources professional with more than 15 years of experience, has developed key relationships with national nonprofit organizations such as the American Cancer Society, March of Dimes, the Points of Light Foundation and the U.S. Chambers of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Center, among others.
On a global scale, Meza serves as the KPMG Americas representative, covering the United States, Canada and Latin America, for the firm’s international corporate social responsibility program, KPMG Community Matters.
Away from work, Meza is involved locally in his communities, volunteering at local schools, and working in the areas of diversity and AIDS. He contributes his time to numerous nonprofit boards, including the AWLP Strategy Board, Board of Trustees for Corporate Voices for Working Families, the Board of Directors for Companies That Care, and the Advisory Board for Universal Giving and My Good Deed. He also serves on the Points of Light Foundation’s councils for National Workplace Volunteering and Connect America.
Jennifer Swanberg, Ph.D. Executive Director, Institute for Workplace Innovation, University of Kentucky
A true expert in the field of work-life effectiveness, Jennifer Swanberg, Ph.D., teaches as an associate professor at the University of Kentucky in the College of Social Work. To educate those outside of the classroom, she is the executive director of the University of Kentucky’s new Institute for Workplace Innovation, an interdisciplinary organization that assists businesses in developing work environments that meet employees’ demands, on and off the job.
Swanberg’s research has been applied to recreate workplace cultures. She is currently leading a study examining the effects of responsive workplace practices for hourly workers on business success and employee well-being and another study of the best workplace practices in Kentucky. She is co-directing a study focused on flexible work arrangements for older workers. Her nationally respected work-family research has been published extensively in scholarly journals and earned her media interviews with outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, NPR and the BBC. She was also a 2005 nominee for the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research.
Her research has also looked at a broad range of issues affecting families and workplaces, with positions at the National Center for Alcohol and Substance Abuse and the Families and Work Institute. She is the guest co-editor of a forthcoming special issue of Journal of Interpersonal Violence focusing on intimate partner violence, women’s employment and workplaces.
Cali Williams Yost President/Founder, Work+Life Fit Inc.
For more than a decade, Cali Williams Yost has been helping busy professionals at some of the most prestigious companies create strategies for balancing work and life. Yost, who started her career in the corporate jungle, knows the importance and challenge of finding this flexibility.
After earning an MBA from Columbia University in 1995, the former New York City commercial banker began consulting on work-life strategies with Fortune 500 companies through the Families and Work Institute and later Bright Horizons Family Solutions. From there, she founded her own company, Work+Life Fit Inc. She consults with individuals and organizations, including Ernst&Young, GlaxoSmithKline, Microsoft, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch; and students and alumni from top business schools such as Harvard, Kellogg, Wharton and Columbia.
In 2004, Yost authored the critically acclaimed book, Work+Life: Finding the Fit That's Right for You. Yost and her book, which describes the steps to fit work into your life strategically, creatively and effectively, have been featured in such national publications as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Fast Company.
Books aren't the only things Yost writes. In addition to running a business and supporting her book, Yost found time to create and write the weekly Work+Life "Fit" blog, the first blog in the work-life field.
2007 Work-Life Innovative Excellence Award Recipients
Capital Metro Transportation Authority, Capital Metro Wellness Program
Running an operation 24-hours a day, seven days a week, can take a toll on employees, as Capital Metro Transportation Authority (CMTA) of Austin, Texas, discovered. Employees working non-traditional hours experienced difficulty focusing on their own wellness needs. As a result, many were making poor health and lifestyle choices, which elevated their risk for obesity, hypertension and diabetes. Also adding stress to the work-life equation was the fact that employees with families found themselves with a limited selection of daycare providers that could accommodate irregular hours.
CMTA addressed these issues by developing an on-site wellness and 24-hour fitness center coupled with a healthy options cafeteria and on-site child care and learning center with flexible hours priced 15% lower than other comparable local centers.
Since its implementation in January 2003, absenteeism has dropped 44%. Morale has greatly improved, and the program has led to increased interaction among employees at all levels.
The long-term goal of the program is to help CMTA become the healthiest workplace in the city of Austin and reduce health care costs. Increases to the company’s health insurance premiums have been minimal — a direct result of engaging employees and helping them to be proactive in fighting obesity and reversing the trend of declining health.
United States Patent & Trademark Office, Trademark Work at Home In 1997, the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) developed a pilot Trademark Work at Home program for 18 of its examining attorneys who review trademark applications. The agency’s objectives in implementing the program were to attract and retain high quality staff, accommodate the space needs of a growing workforce, and reduce commuter traffic.
Today, the Trademark Work at Home program includes more than 220 employees (85% of eligible examining attorneys) who perform the majority of their duties at home.
A major feature of the program is the hoteling component, whereby participants give up their assigned offices and reserve workspace in designated “hotel” offices when they need to come in. When working remotely, each employee is provided with the necessary equipment to establish a secure connection to the agency’s network, and automated systems enable users to perform all of their examination duties electronically. By incorporating measurable performance goals in the evaluation of worker performance, the USPTO has created a model of an extremely successful telecommuting program for government agencies.
This program is having a positive impact on the USPTO as well as enhancing the quality of life of its employees. It is maximizing productivity, allowing workers to have greater control over the way they use their time, and enhancing the agency’s ability to recruit and retain valuable employees.
Massachusetts General Hospital, Be Fit In response to rising health insurance costs — some driven by preventable illness — Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) developed an employee wellness program called “Be Fit” to help employees live healthier lifestyles. This program incorporates healthy meals from the cafeteria, monthly nutrition seminars, meditation sessions, daily walks, and discounted membership at the MGH-owned health club for groups of MGH employees.
At the core of the program lies a 10-week nutrition and fitness curriculum where employees form teams and compete for weight loss, total number of workouts and number of food records kept.
Since its inception in January 2005, the Be Fit program has helped 748 employees realize a healthier lifestyle. Participants have access to dietitians and personal trainers who serve as mentors. MGH also developed a Web site that features healthy food choice suggestions, fitness and exercise tips, and testimonials from employees who have completed the 10-week program. The Web site recently introduced a fitness blog for members and nonmembers to share information and ask questions.
MGH is formally evaluating the program by adding a research team from Harvard Medical School faculty to collect and analyze data over a period of three years. The objective of the program is to decrease MGH’s long-term health insurance expenses by sustaining healthy habits for its workforce.
