UMass Jed Campus Team Honors Claire E. Hamilton with Inaugural Mental Health Champion Award

Claire E. Hamilton, associate provost emerita and former director of the center for teaching and learning, has been named the inaugural recipient of the UMass Jed Campus Team Mental Health Champion Award.

Designed to recognize significant contributions to the mission of the Jed Campus Team, the award will be given annually.

Based upon the Jed Foundation's strategic model for mental health promotion and suicide prevention, the mission of the JED Campus Program is to support colleges and universities in protecting student mental health and preventing suicide. Formed in 2019, the UMass Jed Campus Team is a community of practice that exists to foster collaboration, shared learning, and strategic innovation among professionals committed to promoting mental health and wellbeing. The team meets monthly through the academic year, often inviting national speakers on important topics related to collegiate mental health.

The team also collaborates to offer mental health programs such as Fresh Check Day, where students participate in interactive booths that help increase awareness of campus resources and knowledge about mental health. 

"We launched the inaugural year for the UMass Jed Campus Team Mental Health Champion Award as we learned of Claire's upcoming retirement," Elizabeth (Betsy) Cracco, associate vice chancellor of campus life and wellbeing, said when presenting Hamilton the award. "Claire is a compassionate and respected educator and was among the first cohort of professionals across campus to come together and engage in a four-year strategic planning process with the National Jed Foundation, designed to audit and elevate the ways offices collaborated across campus to support student mental health.

"Claire has been an ardent advocate for supporting student wellbeing. Her early work in early childhood education and research in attachment frames her understanding of creating classroom experiences that are responsive and supportive to student needs," Cracco continued. "During the pandemic, Claire helped guide the rapid and immense pivot to online education, keeping in mind the need to help support students during this difficult time. She and her office, the Center for Teaching & Learning, have created numerous workshops, programs, and resources to help faculty foster that sense of belonging and safety in the classroom often in collaboration with other JED Team members and including a series of workshops in collaboration with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention designed to help faculty respond to students in distress."